Ukrainian tennis players Elina Svitolina, Marta Kostyuk, and Dayana Yastremska have won their first matches at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
For the second time in history, four Ukrainian female athletes qualified in the individual tennis competition at the Olympics. Anhelina Kalinina was also supposed to compete on the court at Roland Garros, but she withdrew at the last minute due to a cold.
The first to reach the second round was the Olympic bronze medalist, Svitolina. Svitolina defeated Japan's Moyuka Uchijima in two sets in about an hour, 6-2, 6-1. In the next match, the 29-year-old Ukrainian will play against the fifth seed, Jessica Pegula from the United States.
Kostyuk, making her Olympic debut, knocked out Lulu Sun of New Zealand, who had reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals a few weeks earlier. The Ukrainian finished the match in two sets with a score of 6-4, 6-3, moving on to take on Clara Burel from France.
Yastremska, who stopped in the first round at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, started with a victory this time.
Of the three Ukrainians, she spent the most time on the court. Her match against Brazilian Laura Pigossi lasted two hours. Yastremska won in three sets, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0. The Ukrainian will face Colombian Camila Osorio in the next round.
Kostyuk and Yastremska will play against their opponents for the first time.
Svitolina, in turn, has already faced Pegula five times on the WTA tour. Pegula leads the head-to-head record with 4-1. The last match between a Ukrainian and an American took place in 2023 at the US Open. Svitolina was defeated in three sets.
Nate Ostiller
The 2024 Summer Olympics will occur from July 26 to Aug. 11.
Only 140 Ukrainian athletes will compete at the Olympic Games in Paris this year, the smallest number in the history of the country's participation in the games, according to Ukraine's National Olympic Committee.
Ukraine will be represented in 23 sports in Paris. Ukrainian athletes will compete in football, breakdancing, and sport climbing for the first time at the Olympics.
The full-scale invasion has significantly affected the preparation of Ukrainian athletes for the competition in Paris, the National Olympic Committee's president, Vadym Gutzeit, said on July 9 at a press conference in Kyiv.
Over 500 Ukrainian sports facilities have been damaged or destroyed since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. Some of the facilities are located in the Russian-held territories, according to the NOC's president.
Kateryna Hodunova
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