17 May 2026
(Elina Svitolina. PHOTOS: Suspilne.Sport)
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina, a native of Odesa, became the champion of the prestigious WTA 1000 grass court tournament in Rome, thus winning the 20th trophy in her career and the second in 2026.
According to Sport.ua, in the final, the Ukrainian defeated world number four Coco Goff from the United States in three sets.
<b>WTA 1000 tournaments</b> are a category of tennis tournaments on the Women's Tennis Association tour. The former premier mandatory tournaments and premier top-five tournaments merged into this category after the 2021 schedule reorganization.
Svitolina had her sixth head-to-head confrontation with Goffe and won her fourth victory against the athlete, and in particular, her third in 2026. This season, Elina beat Coco in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the semifinals of the WTA 1000 in Dubai.
In addition to Goffe, Elina also defeated Noemi Basiletti, Haley Baptiste, Nicola Bartunkova, Elena Rybakina and Iga Svontek on her way to the crown in Rome.
<b>Elina Svitolina </b>from Odesa is a Ukrainian tennis player, the third ranked player in the WTA singles rankings in 2017, 2018 and 2019, bronze medalist of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (2021), and champion of the final WTA Finals tournament in 2018.
Svitolina won her fifth title at the Grand Slam and her third in Rome. In addition to Italy (2017, 2018, 2026), the Ukrainian also won trophies in Dubai 2017 and Toronto 2017. Elina will rise to eighth place in the updated WTA rankings. A week later, Svitolina will play at Roland Garros, where she will defend her last year's quarterfinal.
In February, Elina Svitolina returned to the top ten in the WTA rankings after reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open, where she earned an additional 349 points to the world ranking.
In October 2025, Elina Svitolina won the Heart Award for her performance in the final of the Billie Jean King Cup 2025. It was the second time in 2025 that Svitolina won the Heart Award. In April, she won the award following the results of the Unofficial World Tennis Championships. Svitolina became the third Ukrainian woman to receive the award since its inception in 2009. Previously, it was won by Angelina Kalinina (2023) and Kateryna Bondarenko (2016).
Кирило Бойко