Elina Svitolina’s resurgence has been the talk of the town this year. If we take a look at her performance this season, the 30-year-old Ukrainian started the season with a bang, reaching the QF of the AO before going down to the eventual winner, Madison Keys, in a three-set thriller. Following that, Svitolina had also reached the QF of the Indian Wells, but her most notable performance came at the Open de Rouen, where she defeated Serbia’s Olga Danilovic in straight sets. After winning her first title in almost two years, Svitolina said, “I feel confident about my game, I trust my game.”

Svitolina carried forward that confidence in the rest of her tournaments and made similar long runs in Madrid and Rome before making it to the QF at the Roland Garros. Although she didn’t have a great outing on the grass court swing and also got eliminated from the Wimbledon Championships in the third round, Elina Svitolina looks quite impressive at the Canadian Open as of now. After defeating Kamilla Rakhimova and Anna Kalinskaya in straight sets in the previous two rounds, she has now also defeated the 2025 Wimbledon finalist, Amanda Anisimova, by 6-4,6-1 in the R16. With this win, she’s now all set to face the four-time Grand Slam winner, Naomi Osaka, in the QF.

What did Elina Svitolina say after the match? Well, she started her speech showcasing her pride in her performance against a big hitter like Anisimova, and then she went on to share her thoughts about her next opponent. Speaking about Naomi Osaka and how she’s going to prepare herself for that match, she added, “Another big striker. It was a good practice for me today to play against Amanda. For now, it’s all about recovery, resting my mind and body, and being ready for a big battle.”

Currently ranked 49th in the world, Naomi Osaka defeated Latvia’s Anastasia Sevastova by 6-1,6-0 within 49 minutes in the R16. This is now her second-quickest tour-level win (after her heroics against Ana Sofia Sanchez in the first round of the Florianopolis 2016). What did Naomi Osaka say after advancing to the last eight of a WTA 1000 or Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 19 months (since the 2024 Qatar Open)?

“I had a solid plan coming in here, and it happened to work out very well,” said the Japanese star. Interestingly, both Osaka and Svitolina have been through a similar journey, but how have they inspired each other in overcoming all the challenges of motherhood?

Elina Svitolina explains how tennis moms push each other to chase excellence

Ukrainian superstar Elina Svitolina welcomed her first child (Skai) with fellow tennis star Gael Monfils in October 2022, while Naomi Osaka became a mother in July 2023. Together, these tennis moms have faced each other seven times in their careers so far, with the Japanese securing victories four times against the former number 3. Their previous meeting was at the 2024 Miami Open, where Osaka defeated Svitolina by 6-2,7-6(5). Before the match, Osaka revealed that she watched Svitolina (at Wimbledon) play while she was pregnant, and she also revealed that seeing the Ukrainian in action made her think, “I want to be there too one day.”

After that match, Naomi Osaka showered praise on Elina Svitolina, saying, “I thought it was a very fun match. I don’t know. When I was playing, I just thought she was an amazing player, so I’m really glad I was able to win in two…I knew that she’s a great player, and I had no choice but to play really well if I wanted a chance to win.”

Later that year, Elina Svitolina opened up on how WTA Tour mums like Naomi Osaka and Caroline Wozniacki inspire her to chase excellence amid her search for finding a balance between motherhood and her tennis career. She revealed that she speaks regularly with Naomi Osaka and other tennis moms and also went on to add, “Each person has a different story, but it’s great to see that we are motivated and push each other. Everything we do is a great inspiration, not just for tennis, but for sports in general. I feel that women have many more options to do all this nowadays. We try to motivate women to come back and keep paving their way.”

Both Elina Svitolina and Naomi Osaka (WTA 125K Saint-Malo, FR) had already tasted title triumphs this year. Each of their previous meetings was on hard courts, and it’s needless to mention that it’s really going to be yet another blockbuster clash. Who between these two tennis moms do you think has the edge in this match?