After falling to Elise Mertens' 6-4, 6-0 on Tuesday in Melbourne, Elina Svitolina revealed to reporters that she had been suffering from a hip injury since winning the title at Brisbane prior to the Australian Open.
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“Today was very tough for me physically,” Svitolina told reporters. “I was not ready to produce a good level of tennis. You know, she's a great player, so, you know, she has a good level, so, you know, I couldn't match it, because, you know, physically it was very tough for me.”
The No.4-seeded Svitolina said that painkillers had helped her all week but that wasn’t the case in today’s quarterfinal.
“I had pain all the time. But with painkillers, it was fine. But now just... You know, she played great tennis. Long rallies. I couldn't push on the serve. Today the serve was very bad. I gave her this chance to play well, and she did it.”
Svitolina isn’t sure of her plan for treatment yet. “Maybe do the scan and then, you know, just break down everything in small pieces what I have to do and just see how bad is it. Yeah, recover,” she said.