Jelina Switolina’s Wimbledon fairy tale continues. The Ukrainian threw the world number one Iga Swiatek from Poland out of the tournament on Tuesday at the grass classic and reached the semi-finals. Novak Djokovic has long been a regular there in London. The record Grand Slam champion won his quarterfinals against the Russian Andrei Rublev 4: 6, 6: 1, 6: 4, 6: 3 and thus celebrated his 33rd win in a row at Wimbledon.
Djokovic is in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the 46th time. In doing so, he equaled the record held by his long-time Swiss rival Roger Federer. The fact that he is constantly in the role of the hunted inspires the long-time number one in the world. “I love it,” said Djokovic in an interview on Center Court after his success against Rublev. “Every tennis player wants to be in a situation where the others on the court want to beat him,” said Djokovic. “But that motivates and inspires me to play my best tennis. They want my scalp and they want to win – but it’s not happening.”
In the fight for a place in the final, Djokovic will face Italian Jannik Sinner on Friday. The 21-year-old prevailed against the Russian Roman Safiullin 6: 4, 3: 6, 6: 2, 6: 2 and is thus in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
Switolina: “I don’t even know what’s going on in my head right now”
Djokovic and Rublev fought a gripping duel with numerous spectacular rallies. The Russian demanded everything from Djokovic and initially got him into serious trouble. But as so often, the Serb found a way and fended off this attack by an up-and-coming opponent impressively.
For the second time after 2019 in the Wimbledon semifinals: Jelina Switolina. : Image: dpa
Switolina defeated Swiatek 7: 5, 6: 7 (5: 7), 6: 2 and gave the compatriots in their home country, which was plagued by the Russian war of aggression, the next welcome distraction. The Ukrainian, only in the main draw thanks to a wildcard from the organizers, converted her second match point after 2:50 hours and was then celebrated by the spectators.
“If someone had told me before the tournament that I would get to the semifinals here and beat the number one in the world, I would have thought he was crazy,” said Switolina after her strong performance on Center Court. “I don’t know what just happened in my head. It’s an incredible feeling to play here.”
Switolina, who is married to French tennis pro Gael Monfils, gave birth to her first daughter around nine months ago. She only returned to the tennis tour at the beginning of April after a year’s baby break – and that at a time when her Ukrainian homeland has been suffering from Russian rocket attacks for more than 500 days.
Driven to despair with power tennis
“These are difficult times in Ukraine and I can play here. It’s indescribable,” she said after her win against Viktoria Asarenka from Belarus in the round of 16. “Every moment that I’m not on the court, I check how my family and friends are doing, how the situation in Ukraine is.”
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On the pitch, however, Switolina manages to hide worries about her homeland in an impressive way. She got off to a bad start again against Swiatek. But then Switolina improved, played much more aggressively and drove Swiatek to despair with her power tennis.
In the semifinals on Thursday Switolina meets the Czech Marketa Vondrousova. In her quarter-finals, the 24-year-old surprisingly defeated world number four Jessica Pegula from the USA 6: 4, 2: 6, 6: 4 and thus survived the quarter-finals in Wimbledon for the first time in her tennis career.