Svitolina beats Sabalenka to reach WTA Finals semi-finals

Victory in the decisive group match

In the early hours of 14 November, Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina secured a crucial victory over Aryna Sabalenka. The match in the final round of the group stage of the 2026 WTA Finals ended with a score of 6:3, 3:6, 6:1 in Svitolina's favour. Thanks to this result, she secured her place in the semi-finals of the competition, which is being held on hard courts in Indian Wells (USA).

Historical context of her performances

For Elina, this appearance at the WTA Finals is her fourth of her career, and reaching the semi-finals is her third. She last reached this stage in 2019, when she lost to Ashleigh Barty in the final in Shenzhen. In 2018, Svitolina won the main trophy on the courts of Singapore. This time, she became the first former champion to reach the semi-finals of the WTA Finals since 2019, when she also achieved this goal while holding the status of the previous year's champion.

Unique achievements after the match

The victory over Sabalenka brought Svitolina several interesting statistical records. Since the return of the round-robin format of the tournament in 2003, only Venus Williams (2009–2017) had a longer gap between two consecutive semi-final appearances than Elina Svitolina (2019–2026).

Also, since 2003, only Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova (8 wins each) have won more three-set matches at the WTA Finals than Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina (6 wins each).

It is worth noting that for the third time in the history of the competition, two tennis players aged over 30 — Elina Svitolina and Jessica Pegula — have reached the semi-finals. This had previously happened only in 1973 (Nancy Richey and Françoise Dürr) and in 2013 (Serena Williams and Li Na).

What comes next

On 14 November, Svitolina will play her semi-final match against Linda Noskova. The match will start no earlier than 23:30 Kyiv time.