Elina Svitolina is worried she might not be fit enough to play at Wimbledon after injuring her heel. The top seed lost 4-6 6-4 2-6 to Camila Giorgi and remarked afterward that she was surprised she won a set as the problem was affecting her movement. The Ukrainian said, “I even won the second set. I don't know how.”

Svitolina said the nature of the injury makes it difficult to determine how serious it is. She laughed bravely as she explained, “It feels very painful because, you know, I need to walk sometimes. Every time I stand up, it's painful. So that's why I can't really move. It gets tired. And the heel is very sensitive with very small muscles. So I’m very disappointed. I don't want to endanger the end of the season because hard court (tennis) is on the way and that's where I need to be strong as well.”

The Ukrainian said the heel problem means she was not beating herself up about her performance against Giorgi. “Of course, I’m disappointed I'm out of the tournament, but I’m not disappointed about my performance because I couldn't really show 50 percent of what I can do. I was late with my feet, which is why I didn't give myself any opportunity to manage the points. So I’m very, very disappointed that it's happened. I have one week of preparation for Wimbledon but it's very tough to think about because it might still be very painful.”

Svitolina continued, “I don't want to say (I won’t play Wimbledon) because I was really looking forward to this year. But you never know. Today I woke up and the court was slippery and it was so bad for my foot. So I will do my best. Today I tried to play and compete. I managed to win the second set in a tight game at 5-4. I was trying to spend more time (on court) and find a way to manage this. But after the match, I can say that it's very difficult. Tomorrow I'm going to see how it feels. But at the moment it's very uncomfortable, and there is a question (about Wimbledon) because the season is long and there are lots of big hard court tournaments where I will feel more comfortable and confident. It's disappointing.”

Svitolina started well against Giorgi, hitting a fantastic deep return to force deuce on the Italian’s serve in the opening game before going on to break. She, then, dropped her own serve before breaking Giorgi again with a floated forehand winner to win one point and some superb defensive shots to force an error and seal it. However, things started going downhill for Svitolina from game six onwards. Giorgi hit two exquisite cross-court forehand winners during a love hold and then hit a very clever slice to earn two break points on the Ukrainian’s serve. The Italian really let loose with her groundstrokes on the first one and forced the error she needed to break back.

Giorgi and Svitolina then traded comfortable holds to make it 4-4 before the Italian hung onto her serve in a very tight ninth game. The Ukrainian set up one break point with a lethal combination of a cross-court forehand followed by a cross-court backhand winner into the opposite corner, then another with a forehand winner down the line. She, then, put everything she had into the second attempt to break but could not break Giorgi’s defense and the Italian eventually held. It proved crucial, as Giorgi was able to step up her aggression and drill deep groundstrokes into the corners which Svitolina simply could not deal with due to her reduced movement. The Italian got the break and won the set 6-4 – she had played very well.

In the second and third sets, there were very few games which featured both players performing well. Giorgi went off the boil completely as she slipped 1-5 down in the second set, and then Svitolina started spraying unforced errors all over the place to allow the Italian to drag it back to 4-5. The Ukrainian pulled herself together to serve out the set, then struggled to find her range once again in the third set as Giorgi ran away with it and won it 6-2 to seal the match.

Despite her disappointment, Svitolina was complimentary about Giorgi afterwards. She said, “I was expecting (her to play well) because she always played great on grass. It's quite normal.” She continued, “I played against her in Wuhan a couple of years ago, and I knew what to expect. Here, of course, it was disappointing that I couldn't move my leg because against her you need to move very quickly and around the ball to give yourself space, and today it was not there.”