Wimbledon 2025: Ukraine's Svitolina secures third-round berth by eliminating 'neutral' Sosnovich
Photo: Elina Svitolina advances to the third round of Wimbledon (Getty Images)
Elina Svitolina spent just over an hour on her match against "neutral" Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Defeating her opponent in two sets, Ukraine’s top tennis player advanced to the third round of the Wimbledon tournament.
Wimbledon 2025, Second Round
Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) – Aliaksandra Sasnovich – 6:2, 6:4
How the match unfolded
In the first set, the players exchanged a flurry of breaks. Although Svitolina lost two of her service games, she won four on her opponent’s serve. That gave the Ukrainian a solid advantage, allowing her to close out the set confidently at 6–2.
In the second set, the Belarusian took an early lead with a break to go up 2–0. However, Svitolina quickly regrouped and won four games in a row to make it 4–2. Unlike the first set, though, Sasnovich didn’t go down without a fight, and Svitolina’s performance was far from flawless.
Sasnovich managed to break back, but the decisive moment came in the tenth game. There, Svitolina capitalized on another break point to seal the victory with a final score of 6–4.
What’s next
Svitolina has reached the third round at Wimbledon for the third year in a row. In the next round, the Ukrainian will face the world No. 23 — Belgian player Elise Mertens.
This will be the ninth head-to-head meeting between the two players. Svitolina currently leads their rivalry 5–3.
The most recent encounter between Svitolina and Mertens took place just before the start of Wimbledon — on June 22 at the WTA 500 tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany. Svitolina won that match in straight sets, 7–5, 6–4.
