
By Ros Satar, in Birmingham
- Camila Giorgi def. Elina Svitolina [2] 6-4 4-6 6-2
- Foot injury could rule her out of Wimbledon
- Main goal is second half of season
BIRMINGHAM, UK β No. 2 seed Elina Svitolina hinted she might not be able to play at Wimbledon after exiting the Aegon Classic in the second round, carrying a foot injury.
CLICK TO BUY TENNIS TICKETS
Camila Giorgi def. Elina Svitolina [2] 6-4 4-6 6-2
Elina Svitolinaβs relationship with the grass suffered another downturn after she lost the second round match to Camila Giorgi, before admitting that a foot injury might also scupper her Wimbledon chances. The Ukrainian has never professed to like the surface (her W/L record is now 5-11) but she looked to have worked hard to deal with the adjustments in her opening round win against Heather Watson.
However, up against Giorgi who can batter the ball back no matter what her position on the court, her movement was so impeded, she admitted she was late to everything on court.
βI was not 100 percent today. I still have this issue with my leg. And yeah, I’m not even like disappointed — of course, disappointed I’m out of the tournament, but not disappointed about my performance because I couldn’t really show even likeΒ 50 percent of what I can do.
βI all the time was late with my feet, you know, not there. So that’s why I didn’t give myself any opportunity to manage the point. I still have pain. I think I will have one week preparation for Wimbledon. But for me, you know, I don’t want to endanger the end of the season.β
After her win over Watson, where she advanced in to the second round of the Aegon Classic for the first time in three attempts, she said:
βIt feels amazing actually because I’ve been struggling a little bit on grass for the past few years, and yeah, it feels good, and I like the way I played today, the way I handled the game, the tight moments as well.
βI think I was not strong enough physically, and also just everything came together. And this year has been a good year for me, and I think also on grass will be much better.β
It was a very different picture with her movement impeded enough to give Giorgi the initial advantage, although she jokingly was amazed that even with the injury she managed to level the set.
She said: βI even won the second set. I don’t know how, but you know, I managed to win the second set in a tight 5-4 on this game. So I was trying to just spend more time and try to find a way how I can manage this.β
Wimbledon v Bigger Picture for Svitolina

After a strong start to the year, winning Taipei and Dubai, she backed that up with a solid but ultimately very busy clay court season, winning in Istanbul and Rome before losing to Simona Halep in the Roland Garros semi-final.Β Currently third in the Porsche Race to Singapore for the WTA Finals, she admitted that the latter half of the season was very much in her mind, rather than focussing on this short grass court season, with Wimbledon just 10 days away.
She continued: βThe end of the year because the start of the year was amazing, and I’m on the right path to play Singapore my main goal for this year. So it’s going to be a very tough decision what I’m going to do, but for the moment I will take time to think about it, to see physio and think with my team what’s the best, because you know, big picture that’s what I consider is. In my career it’s always been big like this, so I try to look at this this way.
βIt’s very tough to say, because I just lost the match and my head is not even sad about losing that match. It’s more about, yeah, what I’m going to do tomorrow to get better to sort this thing. Always there is the next step and that’s what I’m looking forward to.β
Wimbledon takes place between 3-16 July.
CLICK TO BUY PRO TENNIS GEAR
Featured Image Credit: Jimmie48 Tennis Photography
Follow Britwatch - Sport in General, Brits in Particular! | |
---|---|
Soundcloud | |
YouTube | |
We may receive compensation for products purchased via affiliate links on this website |