Elina Svitolina: Who is the Ukranian mum and Harry Styles fan playing in the semi-finals of Wimbledon

The Ukrainian entered the competition as a wildcard after a break due to pregnancy took her from third in the world down to 78th.

The competition so far

The Ukrainian has beaten four former grand slam winners en route to the last four, starting with Venus Williams in straight sets on Centre Court in the first round, and followed by the dispatching of Elise Mertens taking the match: 6-1; 1-6 and 6-1 in a back-and-forth encounter.

The matches were coming thick and fast as she next faced American Sofia Kenin a day later on Friday July 7, as she once again took victory in straight sets after a first set tiebreaker as Svitolina saw off second grand slam champion of the week.

Her next opponent was two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka in which Svitolina won a controversial round-of-16 match in a final set tiebreaker.

Finally, Svitolina took her most surprising victory so far by defeating current world No. 1 Iga Swiatek on Tuesday evening 7-5 6-7 6-2 in a close encounter.

She showing her respect to the Polish player by praising the support she has shown to Ukraine by wearing the country’s flag on the side of her cap. “We really admire her in Ukraine,” said Svitolina.

Drama with Harry Styles

Svitolina has made herself a social media sensation after joking about having tickets to a Harry Styles concert in Vienna last Saturday that she was unable attend due to her progression at Wimbledon.

The musician got in touch with the left-hander on social media inviting her to any of the final four concerts. Time is running out for the tennis star as Thursday’s semi-final took away the opportunity to attend Wednesday’s concert in Barcelona and if Svitolina goes on to win the tournament the only chance left is in Italy next Saturday.

Reasons for victory

The 28-year-old puts her surprising run down to having “different pressures” after giving birth to daughter Skai just eight months ago.

She said: “I think also, because I just started to play again, I have different pressures. Of course, I want to win. I have this motivation, like huge motivation, to come back to the top. But I think having a child, and war, made me a different person. I look at things a bit differently.”

After the quarter-final win she called husband and fellow tennis star Gael Monfils and daughter Skai, who disappointingly for the Ukrainian seemed distracted by an ice cream.

“I was not the priority there," Svitolina joked. “She is still at this age when she doesn’t care if I win, if I lose. She’s just happy by herself or sometimes when I come back home, she’s happy too.”

The rest of the tournament

Svitolina has said that she does not want Monfils to join her in London just yet because she doesn’t want to change her routine before Thursday’s semi-final on Centre Court, where if victorious she could face Belarus’ Arnya Sabalenka in Saturday’s final.

That would be quite a tense affair after Svitolina refused to shake the hand of last-16 opponent Azarenka due to Belarusian support of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.