After returning to the WTA Tour following the birth of her first child, with fellow tennis star Gael Monfils, Elina Svitolina not only won a WTA Tour title in Strasbourg (2023) but also reached the quarterfinal of the French Open and semifinal of Wimbledon in that same year. Following that incredible comeback season, she was heard saying, “For sure I have high goals, and I always had high goals for myself, and I have ultimate goals like I think every tennis player, to win a Grand Slam and become No.1 in the world.” Although she has made quite a few long runs since her comeback at the majors, Svitolina couldn’t really deliver when it mattered the most.

But at the 2025 French Open, she recently defeated last year’s finalist Jasmine Paolini in a three-set thriller. Paolini entered the fourth round match on a nine-match winning streak on clay, having recently won the WTA 1000 in Rome. So, can we say this was one of the most important victories for Elina Svitolina in her 15-year-long career?

In this match, Elina Svitolina saved three match points and stole victory from the jaws of defeat against the Italian by a 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-1 margin. With this win against Paolini, Svitolina has now extended her lead as the woman with the most clay court wins this season (17-2). This is now her fifth Roland Garros quarterfinal appearance and 13th Slam quarterfinal. After this match, her opponent, Jasmine Paolini, was asked to share her thoughts about this result. The 2024 finalist claimed, “I think the reason is that she’s a great player. I had my chances.. maybe one match point I could play better, but at the same time, she’s a great player.“

Having already earned the praise, does Svitolina consider this one of the most important victories in her career? Well, during the post-match press conference, she said, “I wouldn’t say so because I’ve had many wins in different stages of my career. For example, I had a great win against Serena in the Olympics in Rio. This was a great win for me, a boost of confidence. I was pretty young at that time. Also beating Rybakina to win a bronze medal in Tokyo.”

“This was a massive comeback as well for me to get that medal,” she continued. “There are a couple of matches that I had in the past where I had to come back after being a set down or just generally down in the match. But I rate it pretty high because for sure, winning from match points down is special. Especially in a Grand Slam.”

Elina Svitolina had met Serena Williams six times in her career, and her sole victory against the American came at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Williams ended that match in disappointment – She had 37 unforced errors in her 4-6, 3-6 defeat against the Ukrainian. However, despite that shocking defeat, Williams heaped praise on Svitolina, saying, “It’s obviously disappointing, but she played really well and I think the better player today won.” Reacting to this incredible victory, Svitolina had then said, “It’s unreal. It’s just the perfect moment. To beat her at the Olympics is extremely special for me.”

Now, coming back to the 2025 French Open, with this win against Jasmine Paolini, Elina Svitolina has touched quite a few milestones, now. Since 2015, when she made her first appearance at Roland Garros, only Serena Williams (16) has reached more women’s singles Grand Slam QF than Elina Svitolina (13). This was also Svitolina’s 42 win against the Top 10 in her career (third of 2025). What else did she say about her performance in this match against Paolini?

Elina Svitolina reveals the secret to her success against Jasmine Paolini

This was Elina Svitolina‘s second win against Jasmine Paolini in her career. Even in their previous encounter in the third round of the 2025 Australian Open, it took three sets to decide the fate of their match. Talking about saving three match points and sealing the victory this time against Paolini, she said, “I tried to stick to my game plan. I tried to stay in the match. Keep fighting, keep doing aggressive things on the court. Tried to find my opportunities to get back in the match. Jasmine played really well in the 1st set and the 2nd as well. The match was really close in the 2nd. I knew I had to try to give myself a chance to come back into the match and just leave it all there. If I would lose in two sets, all credit to her. But I tried to fight and I’m very happy I did that and got rewarded.”

Elina Svitolina is currently ranked 14th in the world, but her career-high ranking has been world number 3. Does she think that she’s now playing better than what she was playing in September 2017? “At that time, I feel like physically I was really tough. Now I feel like I have bigger shots.. a good thing I have is all the experience from previous years being at the top of the women’s game.” Talking about her goals, she further added, “Right now I feel like I’m not so far from top 10. So that’s my goal for this season. To really be good with my tennis and of course ranking-wise.“

Talking about playing good tennis, well, Elina Svitolina needs to bring out her A-game when she steps onto the Philippe-Chatrier next time to play against the defending champion, Iga Swiatek, in the quarterfinal. Swiatek has a 3-1 lead over the Ukrainian. Can Svitolina make full use of her incredible form and outclass the ‘Queen of Clay’ in Paris?