Svitolina<\/a> was praised for what she did immediately after beating Badosa to secure Ukraine\u2019s place in the semis.<\/p>\nMelanie South says it was a \u2018nice touch\u2019 from Elina Svitolina to shake hands with the Spanish team<\/p>\n
Svitolina could be seen shaking hands with every member of Spain\u2019s Billie Jean King Cup team after the match, a move that impressed former British tennis player Melanie South.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe plays with such passion,\u201d said South.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lovely touch from her to go shake the hand of every member of the Spanish team as well. They fought and did everything out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Elina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235935295-1024x703.jpg\")
Photo by Lintao Zhang\/Getty Images for Billie Jean King Cup<\/p>\n
South was keen to praise both players for putting on a show for the fans in China.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Paula] Badosa, just fantastic, it\u2019s great to see her back, she was engaging with the crowd, she was enjoying the battle and the fight, it was such a fantastic match,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Also speaking on commentary, former top 100 Ukrainian player Olga Savchuk was delighted to see her nation qualify for the semifinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can definitely see all that joy for Team Ukraine, finally they\u2019ve made it happen for the first time in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, first win for them, and beating Spain, who they previously lost to before one time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo produce such a level from both of the players, that pressure to lead the team, was just incredible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been going at this for so long, for so many years, it finally feels like they\u2019re in the right place at the right time. But again, what a level they produced.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine and Svitolina will now rest up ahead of their semifinal tie against the defending champions, Italy.<\/p>\n
Elina Svitolina claims Ukraine are here to \u2018win the whole thing\u2019 ahead of Italy semifinal<\/p>\n
During her post-match interview, Svitolina shared her thoughts on Ukraine\u2019s upcoming semifinal tie with Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to win, we are here to perform well and try to win the whole thing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are enjoying being here and all the conditions are perfect, it\u2019s great to be here and playing in the semifinals is a bonus for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Svitolina then reflected on her and Ukraine\u2019s performance in the quarterfinals against Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper pleased with the team performance, not only my performance today, because it takes a lot of people, and of course, all the guys here in the tracksuits of Ukraine, and the crowd as well made it really special for us today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really important for not only our team but also for our country to be in the semifinals for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really tough match, Paula is a great fighter and a great player, so I had to really dig deep for this win and just tried to be really focused every point<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great battle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Svitolina has now won more Billie Jean King Cup matches than any other player in Ukrainian tennis history.<\/p>\n
Looking to make more history, Svitolina will try to lead her team to an upset win over Italy in the last four.<\/p>\n
Svitolina will likely be paired up against Italian number one Jasmine Paolini<\/a> in the singles, a player she has beaten twice before.<\/p>\n2025 French Open 4R \u2013 Elina Svitolina defeated Jasmine Paolini2025 Australian Open 3R \u2013 Elina Svitolina defeated Jasmine Paolini<\/p>\n
Only time will tell if Svitolina can pick up her third win over Paolini should they face off in the Billie Jean King Cup semifinals.<\/p>\n
Team Italy will play Team Ukraine for a place in the final on Friday, September 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elina Svitolina made history for Ukraine at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. After Marta Kostyuk gave Ukraine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[90806,42962,99167,24450,99,428,654],"class_list":{"0":"post-163798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-billie-jean-king-cup","9":"tag-elina-svitolina","10":"tag-melanie-south","11":"tag-paula-badosa","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tennis","14":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Team](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2235935403-1024x675.jpg\")
Photo by Lintao Zhang\/Getty Images for Billie Jean King Cup<\/p>\n