WTA: Catfight: Simona Halep is an inspiration for Elina Svitolina

There’s another guy who says there’s a lot of resentment and envy on the WTA tour. Elina Svitolina has proven the opposite with her statements about the Grand Slam triumph of industry leader Simona Halep. She found the Romanian’s French Open title an “inspiration”.

“It’s great what she’s done, it’s a big deal,” said world ranking fifth Svitolina on the WTA homepage about the Paris halep-coup and said: “It shows that you really have to fight to make your dreams come true. And that’s something that’s really inspiring for everyone.”

The 26-year-old Halep had lost the first three major finals of her career before she broke the spell a week ago in the Roland Garros final and defeated Sloane Stephens (USA) in three sets in the final of the clay court classic.

Svitolina (23), already number three in the WTA ranking, is still waiting for the big breakthrough at a Grand Slam event. Perhaps the Ukrainian will succeed at the upcoming grass evergreen in Wimbledon (July 2 to 15).

Hardly any other place would be more suitable, because Svitolina now lives in the English capital. “This is the first time I’ve played in Wimbledon since I moved here. And I’m sure it will feel more like a home tournament this time,” said the right-hander from Odessa, who has already won the tournaments in Brisbane, Dubai and Rome this season.

At the Australian Open at the beginning of the year it had been enough to reach the quarter-finals – at the French Open it was surprisingly already over in the third round. That’s where Wimbledon comes in. Especially since Svitolina raves about the tradition of the sacred lawn. “Wimbledon is a tournament where the rules are strict – and I think that makes it so special.”

At present, however, the football World Cup in Russia is also a major topic for Svitolina. She typed through the tournament – and decided on Brazil as world champion.