Day 9 at Wimbledon 2023 had more surprises in store than anyone imagined. Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula, the No. 1 and No. 3 seeds at Wimbledon, were both eliminated in the quarterfinals by unseeded opponents.
Elina Svitolina, the Ukrainian who returned to the tour just a few months ago after giving birth to her first child in October, knocked off Swiatek, the No. 1 player in the world, 7-5, 6-7, 6-2 to return to the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time since 2019. Though Svitolina is unseeded and currently ranked No. 76 in the world, she was ranked as high as No. 4 in 2021, with her ranking taking a nosedive due to the time she took off in 2022 while pregnant.
Neither could Swiatek, frankly. Svitolina had started reading Swiatek's serves very well, and Swiatek wasn't making the adjustments to give her serve more variety. Svitolina was striking first in every game, leaving Swiatek to catch up every time. But instead of buckling down, Swiatek kept looking up at her box for advice or support, clearly feeling uncomfortable with her position — being down a set and battling to stave off elimination.
But that didn't fix anything for Swiatek, who continued to have trouble avoiding unforced errors and catching the line with her shots. Svitolina, on the other hand, got a grip on her serve and completely dominated Swiatek in the final set. Though Swiatek will probably be thinking about this match for a long while, it didn't affect their friendship.
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