BILLIE JEAN KING CUP

September 24, 2026

Elina Svitolina

Team Ukraine

Press Conference

G. MINNEN/E. Svitolina

6-7, 6-4, 6-4

Team Ukraine - 1

Team Belgium - 1

THE MODERATOR: Elina, bad luck today. Can you share your thoughts of the match, please.

ELINA SVITOLINA: Yeah, was a tough match today. I think it wasn't bad match. Yeah, I think she played incredible today from the beginning until the very end. Yeah, it was not a bad match at all.

Just, yeah, very disappointed obviously with the result, yeah, with my performance because I thought I could play a bit better.

Yeah, it's like this.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Elina, can you talk a bit more about Minnen's level today. What do you think she was able to find? She's outside of the top 200. What did she do particularly well?

ELINA SVITOLINA: She is. But she was also a good player in the past. I think she was injured a little bit. She knows the level. In a way she's a good player. I didn't really look at the ranking.

Also I think she was serving really, really well today. There was lots of big serves. In important moments, as well.

It was a three-set match. In the first set, second set, third set, there were only a few points that decided this match. She played better. This surface here really requires you to be really, really on it.

Yeah, unfortunately for me it didn't happen today.

Q. Do you think the rankings in Billie Jean King Cup, they mean a lot less perhaps because when you're playing for your nation, it's a different game?

ELINA SVITOLINA: For sure, for sure. Also the help of the bench, the help of the coach on the bench, I think it matters a lot. It's a very different pressure, I would say, in a way.

Yeah, it's the sweeter-bit (sic) feeling to play here because, of course, you have a lot of emotions. Who deals the best wins.

So yeah...

We did few changes during the match. Some worked, some didn't. Also she's a good player, so she changed few couple of things.

Yeah, to be fair, she played really, really incredible. Really high-quality match. Only few points decide here and there.

I feel like I didn't play that bad. Of course, I had my chances here and there. Yeah, unfortunately didn't go my way. But this is tennis. Happens like this. You have to find the way to win even in the days where it's so-so.