MUBADALA DC OPEN

July 28, 2026

Elina Svitolina

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Elina, welcome to D.C. Just your thoughts ahead of the tournament start.

ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, very happy to be here. It's been a couple of years that I didn't play in D.C. I always have good memories to be playing, and the organization here is so nice. So happy to start U.S. swing here in Washington.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. I remember asking Gael about this in Paris about his schedule to the summer, and he said you guys were planning a vacation during this week of the year. So I'm curious how you decided to come here instead? Also, I guess Gael is not here, but how did you make the decision to have you here and him not?

ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, with the early exit that I had at Wimbledon, for me I had more time. That's almost one month that we had to rest, so I had my vacation. He had his vacation as well. Because we were a little bit on a different schedule, as I was playing Wimbledon. He was resting, not playing.

Then I had my vacation actually a couple of weeks ago. I also was in Ukraine. Yeah, it was quite busy. Busy but very nice time off.

He wanted to play here, but he was just short with the preparation, but he is now actually training in Montreal already to get ready for the tournament.

Q. Just want to ask regarding that, the early Wimbledon exit, how that, you touched on it, changed your travel plans, but how did it maybe alter preparation for this? How did you take advantage of a little bit of extra time, unexpected extra time, coming into this week?

ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, I had definitely a lot of time on my hands, which is very rare, but I had a busy schedule before, you know, in the clay court season where I was very much working a lot.

Yeah, this time was nice to really reset and spend a little bit of time at home and then doing some other fun things off the court.

Yeah, just a good decision for me to play here, because I think it's nice to be back on track before also the other big tournaments in Toronto, Cincinnati, New York, of course. So yeah, I think I always look at the positive side.

There's still lots of tournaments to come, lots of matches to come. So it's sometimes just about resting and shutting off completely from tennis and then going in.

Q. I saw you training there with Jessica Pegula back here. Is there something specific you are working on during the training or practice?

ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, as always, when you are on a practice court, you're always working on something. Now it's all about trying to adjust, because I arrived not long ago, so for me it was about adjusting to the balls, to the conditions, trying to feel myself on this surface, because everywhere is different.

But yeah, it's nice to practice with a top player and to see where you are with your game before the tournament starts.

Q. The US Open mixed doubles entry list was announced yesterday. Is that something that you're thinking about doing? Gael did it last year. Is that something you would potentially do together as a team?

ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, we'd love to play. We'll see, because as the ranking of Gael is not as we wish it is. So yeah, we'll wait for maybe potential wild card, or I don't know. We'll see. Now it's maybe a bit different format, I don't know, as last year. So we'll see. Hopefully we can play. If not, not, but it's like this.

Q. You're still a few months to go, but you're currently in position for the WTA Finals if it ended today for the race. I'm curious what you make of the new location for them this year at Indian Wells and what it might be like to play there for a WTA Finals event?

ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, I think it is how it is. As it's always been an indoor tournament. Now it's a bit different.

It's going to be interesting the way that it's going to be with -- firstly, it's going to be probably weird to come to play there as not an Indian Wells tournament, but a different one.

But I think it's nice because now we know what to expect. We know how the courts are playing and the way that the setup of the tournament. So it's going to be interesting experience if at some point I'm going to get there. So yeah, it's nice.

Q. I'm curious, I just saw something about you partnering with them three years ago with Palantir, and I'm wondering, are you still working with them? It's not a name we usually see in tennis. I'm curious how what that partnership is like, if it's still going, and the sort of stuff you do together?

ELINA SVITOLINA: It's a partnership that I had before. Now we just keep the contact. Before they done a lot of work, a lot of volunteer work, with the people who relocated from Ukraine during the war. So it's a team, lots of Ukrainians. So yeah, it's a company that done a lot with refugees, so yeah.

Q. But you're not actively still sponsored by them?

ELINA SVITOLINA: No.