Elina Svitolina is trying to learn not to put too much pressure on herself and she now has former world No1, Justine Henin, in her corner to help her achieve that.
Henin, a seven-time grand slam champion and the most successful player in the history of the Dubai tournament with four titles, has joined Team Svitolina as a consultant after spending time with the young Ukrainian during her offseason training in Abu Dhabi last December.
Svitolina played her first match with Henin in her corner on Tuesday and it proved a positive start for the pair as the 21-year-old claimed a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Slovakian qualifier Jana Cepelova.
Having already made a grand slam quarter-final, at the French Open last year, Svitolina had high expectations of herself at the Australian Open last month but she ended up suffering a shock second round defeat to world No127 Naomi Osaka.
“Australian Open was bad start for me. It was really tough to go through it because I had high expectations,” Svitolina said on Tuesday.
“Probably need to learn from it, to don’t put so much pressure on myself. Just to go out there and enjoy playing, enjoying playing my best. So this is the goal for the moment, because it was too much pressure.”
Svitolina won the Roland Garros junior title in 2010 then got invited to train at the Justine Henin Academy in Belgium, which is where she got acquainted with the Belgian legend.
She is still unclear how often Henin will be travelling with her but is excited about the new partnership, while insisting Iain Hughes remains her main coach.
“I have a coach and consultant for now. It’s great to have Justine in my team, and I worked with her in the offseason for a little bit, and now she is going to join us for some tournaments,” explained Svitolina.
“I’m looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to the hard work. Of course there have been some small changes, but we are trying to do something new what can refresh my game.”
Asked if the fact Henin is practically the queen of the Dubai tournament is a good omen for her, Svitolina laughed and said: “She not only won four times here, she has some amazing results in other tournaments and the grand slams. So it’s amazing to have her experience and have her in my box and just being around.”
Svitolina faces Garbine Muguruza on Wednesday in the second round for a place in the Dubai quarter-finals.
