Former first racket of Ukraine Elina Svitolina, who is now on maternity leave, told when she was going to resume her sports career.

In an interview with The New York Times, the 28-year-old tennis player said she expects to return to the court next summer..

" Because I know that I need to be very strong to get back to competition, because right now tennis is very physically demanding.. All muscle groups must be ready.

After not playing for more than seven months and not exercising that much after pregnancy, of course your body will be different.. And I have to really break everything down into little pieces to put together all the strength of my body that I will need if I want to return to the top,"

The Ukrainian woman also spoke about the psychological pressure she faced due to the full-scale invasion of Russian invaders into Ukraine..

" Wanted to switch off tennis.

Perhaps the overreaction was because of what happened at the end of February, and all this nerves, all this pressure.. The tournaments that I participated in were probably too hard for me psychologically, so I was very happy to completely switch off. My goal now is to return. I'm sure I won't regret taking this break,"

Recall that in mid-October 2022, Svitolina became a mother for the first time.. Ukrainian woman gave birth to a daughter from her husband, French tennis player Gael Monfils. The couple decided to name the girl Sky..