Elina Mykhailivna Svitolina, born September 12, 1994, is a Ukrainian professional tennis player. She achieved career-high rankings of world No. 3 in singles and 108 in doubles. Svitolina has won 17 WTA Tour singles championships and has been runner-up three times.

Svitolina initially entered the world’s top 50 in July 2013, then the top 20 in June 2015, and finally the top 10 in May 2017, making her the first Ukrainian woman to do so after surpassing compatriot Alona Bondarenko. After winning her maiden WTA championship in 2013, she won five more until 2017, when she won five more, putting her into the top ten.

Elina Svitolina parents: Meet Olena Svitolina, Mikhaylo Svitolin

Svitolina was born in Odesa, Ukraine, to Ukrainian parents Mikhaylo (a former wrestler) and Olena (a former competitive rower).

She was named after the famous Ukrainian actress Elina Bystritska, which is unusual, and she also has an elder brother, Yulian. Elina realized as a youngster that her brother received a lot of attention for playing tennis. This motivated her to take up the sport in order to reclaim some of her father’s attention.[3] She began playing at the age of five.