Ukrainian seventh seed avoids third straight defeat to Hungarian
Elina Svitolina summoned one of her “top three” grittiest Grand Slam escapes to avoid a first-round exit at Roland-Garros against bogeywoman Anna Bondar on Monday.
The seventh seed appeared down for the count trailing 1-3 in the deciding set before reeling in the 58th-ranked Hungarian 3-6 6-1 7-6[10-3] after two hours and 26 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
Bondar had stopped the Ukrainian in Madrid leading in – the last player to beat her before her Rome title triumph – and in the opening round of last year’s US Open after Svitolina prevailed in opening-round clashes at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon last year.
Of 42 Grand Slam first rounds successfully passed from 49 attempts, the 31-year-old rated this as one of the toughest she had ground out.
“Definitely top three. I don't remember that kind of tough [match], not only because I played against her, lost against her, but also, I think it was pretty hot and difficult conditions, difficult opponent,” Svitolina said.
“Yeah, set down, I had to really bring that confidence from Rome to step up my game and keep fighting. In the end, I played some good tennis, second, third set, and I was really locked in.”
Having split sets and reaching for ice towels at every possible chance, the pair were locked in a marathon 14-minute game at 1-1 in the deciding set before Svitolina raised her fist defiantly upon holding.
While not a turning point of the third set, it sent a message to her late-blossoming 28-year-old opponent – who had only reached the second round at a major five times – that she would have to do it the hard way to secure just her second top-10 win over the former world No.3.
Shaking the letdown of being broken to love while serving for the match at 5-4, Svitolina – a five-time quarterfinalist in Paris – drew on the mental resilience that had defined her career to dominate the match tiebreak for a second-round meeting with Spanish qualifier Kaitlin Quevedo.
Joking that she wasn’t even sure she’d make it through her first assignment, she deemed it still far too early to hear her name in discussions about trophy contenders.
“I'm in good form, but I think there are still players who are more favourites than me – I think at least five players are still bigger, they have bigger chances to win this tournament, so I'm not thinking too much about this at all …
“When you are playing well, when you are at the top of, like, the ranking, everybody is playing free against you. I think the example of Anna or other players, they have nothing to lose, so they bring their best game.
“When you get into this position, that's a dangerous position to be in. You need to be really even more kind of focused on the work that you have to do on the court to beat those players, because they are playing the matches of their lives.”
Conditions and bogey opponent aside, there was the added challenge of competing a day after the latest missile strikes on her home country.
Echoing 15th seed Marta Kostyuk’s sentiments, she said it was an ongoing mental weight Ukrainian players have had to carry since 2022.
“You are thinking too much, of course,” she said. “When there are other kind of situations happening like this, you know, of course you start to think about it, you start to think about just your life and, like, what are you doing here, in a way, because you could potentially lose your family.
“So I think it's just, for all Ukrainians like that, in general, we have been dealing with that, just maybe not always talking about this, but it's extremely tough, and I think it's weighing on us for years and years now.”
ROLAND-GARROS
17 May - 6 June 2027
