Andy Roddick praised Elina Svitolina as "hyper-intelligent and self-aware" player that is always there and very "dangerous" on faster surfaces.
In 2025, the Ukrainian tennis star posted a 35-15 record and finished the year ranked at No. 14 in the world.
Before shutting down her season already in September because she wasn't in the right emotional space to compete, Svitolina enjoyed a consistent year for the most part. In the first three months of 2025, the Ukrainian reached the Australian Open and Indian Wells quarterfinals.
During the clay season, the 31-year-old enjoyed multiple deep runs, having won the WTA 250 tournament in Rouen - reached the Madrid semifinal - and made the quarterfinals in Rome and the French Open.
Had Svitolina competed during the Asian swing late in the year, she could have attacked the top-10 ranking.
When making his predictions for the 2026 season, former world No. 1 Roddick gave credit to the Ukrainian for what she was able to do in a limited number of tournaments last year, and also named her as one of the players that could make some noise this year.
Roddick: Svitolina never really punches herself out of anything
Svitolina, win-loss by the way, you see a lot of barely above .500 players making the top-30. I think she was 37 and 15 this year. Shes just there every week, maybe playing a little bit more of a pared-down schedule than most, which is understandable. But she never really punches herself out of anything. Hyper-intelligent player, completely self-aware and dangerous on faster surfaces," the 2003 US Open champion said on the Served with Andy Roddick.
Although Svitolina's best results in 2025 came on clay, Roddick thinks it is the faster surfaces where the Ukrainian's game poses the biggest danger.
I think she needs those faster surfaces, or prefers them at least, at this point in her career, Roddick added.
In the past, Svitolina reached two Wimbledon semifinals and also has one US Open semis on her resume.
Svitolina is set to play two tournaments in the first week of 2026 as she is using Auckland as her preparation for the Australian Open.
