to Ashleigh Barty. This meant Svitolina failed to win a title during the year for the first time since 2012. 2020: Monterrey and Strasbourg titles, return to top 5 At her first tournament of the year in Brisbane, Svitolina lost in the first round to Danielle Collins in straight sets. At the Australian Open, Svitolina defeated Katie Boulter and Lauren Davis, before falling to eventual runner-up Garbiñe Muguruza. Svitolina's slow start to the season continued, being upset in the quarterfinals of Hua Hin by Nao Hibino, and in the first round of both Dubai by Jennifer Brady, and Doha by Amanda Anisimova. She rebounded at the Monterrey Open, where she easily reached the final without dropping a set. She then defeated Marie Bouzková in the final in three sets, capturing her 14th singles title, and her first since her WTA Finals win over 16 months ago. Following the suspension of the WTA Tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Svitolina declined to participate in the US Open due to safety concerns. Her first tournament back was the Italian Open and defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the quarterfinals, where she lost to Markéta Vondroušová, winning just three games. She next participated at Strasbourg, where she defeated Magda Linette, Jil Teichmann, and Aryna Sabalenka to reach the final. There, she won her 15th WTA singles title, defeating Elena Rybakina in three tight sets. At the French Open, where she was the third seed, Svitolina defeated Varvara Gracheva, Renata Zarazúa, Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Caroline Garcia to reach the quarterfinals. At this stage, she was upset by qualifier and world No. 130, Nadia Podoroska. Her final tournament of the season was at the inaugural event in Ostrava, where, in receipt of a first-round bye, she was defeated by Maria Sakkari in straight sets in the second round. She ended her season at Ostrava, and ended the year ranked No. 5. 2021: Olympic bronze medal, 16th WTA Tour title, out of top 10 Svitolina began her year as the second seed at the Abu Dhabi Open and made it to the quarterfinals, where she lost to unseeded Veronika Kudermetova after a third set tiebreak, during which she could not recover from a 3–0 gap at the start. Following the loss, she embarked on her first tournament of the Australian hard court swing at the inaugural Gippsland Trophy in Melbourne, where she entered as