Elina Svitolina won the Auckland Open on Sunday in New Zealand, defeating China’s Wang Xinyu 6-3 7-6(6) in the final to claim the 19th WTA title of her career and open her 2026 season with silverware.
The 31-year-old Ukrainian was tested throughout by her aggressive 24-year-old opponent and was not at her fluent best after a lengthy break from competition. However, Svitolina’s experience and composure proved decisive as she continued her preparations for the Australian Open.
“It feels amazing to win another title especially after a not great end to last season,” Svitolina said. “It was nice to get tough matches here this week and win the final, hopefully we can build on that for the rest of the season.”
Wang, contesting only the second WTA final of her career and still searching for a first title, made a bright start. Her deep groundstrokes and well-disguised drop shots troubled Svitolina early on, but she was unable to maintain the pressure and allowed the world number 13 repeated escapes through a series of unforced errors.
Watched courtside by her husband Gael Monfils, Svitolina secured the crucial break for 4-2 in the opening set after a Wang mistake and closed it out three games later with an ace.
The second set was more finely balanced. Wang, ranked 57 in the world, created three break points in the fourth game, but Svitolina found her first serve at key moments to survive. Breaking the Chinese player again proved more difficult and the set was eventually settled in a tie-break.
There, Svitolina recovered from 3-0 down, digging deep to edge the breaker 8-6 and secure the title, making some amends for her defeat by Coco Gauff in the Auckland final last year.
