Almost three months have passed since Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina won the biggest title of her career at the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.
The 24-year-old was unbeaten in the Singaporean tournament, where she scored wins over Caroline Wozniacki, Karolina Pliskova and Sloane Stephens. A trio of players who have previously contested at least one grand slam final. Now currently ranked fourth in the world, one place adrift from her career high, Svitolina is aiming to conquer new milestones in 2019.
“My goals are always to win a Grand Slam, to become No.1,” wtatennis.com quoted Svitolina as saying. “They are lifetime goals, and I try to stay really focused each tournament to win as many titles as I can.
“This is my ultimate goal each year, but I think the most important for me is to be healthy and to give myself a good chance to play well, because I know that when I’m healthy, when I’m ready mentally to compete, then I have, you know, a good chance to show my best tennis.”
This year Svitolina won four titles on the WTA Tour. An achievement that was only matched by Petra Kvitova, who claimed a total of five trophies during the season. One of the tournaments Svitolina triumph was the Brisbane International, where she will also begin her new season at.
The Brisbane International, which takes place during the first week of January, is set to feature seven top 10 players. Defending champion Svitolina will be the top seed in the draw. Granted a first round bye, her opening match will be against either qualifier Anastasia Potapova or Aliaksandra Sasnovich. 17-year-old Potapova was runner-up at two WTA Tournaments this year and Sasnovich was the player Svitolina defeated in the 2018 Brisbane final.
“Brisbane means a lot because last year I played amazing here, I won the tournament, and I played a few semi-finals here so it’s always a nice bit of the season,” she said.
Next week’s tournament is set to be the only one Svitolina will play prior to the Australian Open. Looking ahead to the Melbourne major, she is keeping keep cautious about her chances. Svitolina is yet to progress beyond the quarter-final stage at a grand slam.
“I won the Singapore and I played well, but I don’t want to think that way,” she explained. “I’ll just try to take this confidence into the matches and show my best tennis.”
The Australian Open will start on January 15th.
