Ukraine’s tennis star Elina Svitolina admitted that returning to playing tennis after giving birth to a child was complicated. On Friday, June 2, Svitolina defeated Russia’s Anna Blinkova 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 at Court Simonne-Mathieu and advanced to the fourth round of the clay-court tournament at Roland Garros.

Interestingly, Blinkova was the same opponent that she defeated last month to win the championship in Strasbourg. Last year, the 28-year-old Svitolina became a parent with husband Gael Monfils, who had pulled out of the French Open due to a wrist injury following his first-round match.

“Well, I just try to play match by match. I was coming here without any expectations, you know. Coming back after giving birth is extremely complicated. But I am really motivated to go further in this tournament and have some really tough opponents. So, it is a matter of recovering and being ready for the next battle,” Svitolina was quoted as saying in the on-court interview.

Dream to play in French Open: Elina Svitolina

“It is special at Roland Garros and I love playing here. It was always such a dream to play in an amazing tournament and to play in front of so many people. I am pleased that I have another chance to play again here,” he added.

After losing the first set, Svitolina found herself in all sorts of trouble. But she earned seven breaks of serve to put pressure on Blinkova. The third set could have gone either way, but the Ukrainian edged past her opponent with some smart tennis. Svitolina, however, would be looking to work on her serves after she made as many as eight double faults.

Svitolina is next set to lock horns with Russia’s Daria Kasatkina, who defeated USA’s Peyton Stearns 6-0, 6-1 earlier on Friday. Svitolina and Kasatkina have met six times on the WTA circuit and every other time, the former came up trumps.