Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina failed to reach the final of the WTA 125 tournament in French Saint-Malo. In the semi-final, a 28-year-old native of Odessa lost to the top seed in these competitions, American Sloan Stevens.. The fight ended with a score of 7:5, 7:6 (5) in favor of the US representative. In the first set, Elina won with a score of 2:5, and also had two set points with a score of 4:5, but she could not finish the job and lost the first game. In the second set, Svitolina had one set point each in the 10th and 12th games, but also did not convert them.. As a result, the game switched to a tie-break, where the American won.. It was the fifth meeting of tennis players. The score became 3:2 in favor of Stevens. The American is the champion of the US Open-2017 and the finalist of Roland Garros-2018. Stevens will face Belgian Gretier Minnen in the Saint-Malo final.. It should be noted that for the first time since returning to the court from maternity leave, Svitolina played in the semi-finals of the WTA tournament. Prior to this, the last time a Ukrainian woman managed to reach this stage was in August 2021 at a tournament in Chicago (USA). On the way to the 1/2 finals of the tournament in Saint-Malo, the Ukrainian beat the representative of Greece Despina Papamihail, defeated the Belgian Ysalin Bonaventure and defeated the Frenchwoman Leolya Zhanzhan. Earlier it was reported that Elina refused to shake hands with an opponent from Belarus after the first round match of the WTA1000 tournament in Madrid. Recall that in early April, Svitolina returned to the court after the decree. In mid-October last year, Elina became a mother for the first time. Ukrainian woman gave birth to a daughter from her husband, French tennis player Gael Monfils.