LONDON — Daria Snigur arrived at Wimbledon, her “favorite place in the world,” in career-best shape. But the Ukrainian is not dreaming of winning the tournament or even her first round against compatriot Elina Svitolina, seeded eighth.
She thinks about her hometown of Kyiv and her apartment near one of the many picturesque lakes in the Ukrainian capital. She did not live there for more than four years: in 2022, after Russia invaded her country and the destruction of Snigur’s training base in a missile attack, she moved to Warsaw, Poland, where she has lived ever since.
“The biggest dream at the moment is to live in Kyiv again,” she said. “To me it’s a beautiful city.”
Even the 24-year-old’s fondest memories are now associated with the war. The 2019 Wimbledon Junior Champion, she still feels a sense of pride when she sees her name engraved on the AELTC honors board. However, this is no longer just important to her.
“This is one of the wonderful moments in my life, in my career,” said Snigur, who still plays with the Ukrainian ribbon pinned to her clothes. “Because I hope that this will help our Ukrainian children, because it’s hard to play tennis now.”
Despite this, Snigur nevertheless managed to have a breakthrough season in 2026. She first made a major impact on tennis in 2022 when she beat then world No. 7 Simona Halep 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 in the first round of the US Open. She rose to No. 105 that November, but spent most of the next three seasons floating under the main tour. Her ranking never fell below 201st place, but breaking into the top 100 was impossible.
There was talent, and the faster the trial, the more likely it was that Snigur would show it. Proof? She has an unlikely winning record against the Top 10 (2-1) and Top 20 (4-3) thanks to losses to Beatrice Haddad Maia at Nottingham 2023 and Marta Kostyuk at Nottingham 2024. Snigur’s game – and forehand moves – are unusual but devastating when they work, with flat forehand winners plopping into corners out of nowhere and two-handed shots being broken up. rhythm.
However, there was no self-belief – until last year, when Snigur began working with David Kelt, the former coach of another unique talent, Agnieszka Radwanska.
“He changed my head,” Snigur said, pointing to it to emphasize her point. “That’s the first thing he changed. That, in my opinion, is the most important thing in our sport. He changed my mental health because he’s a good psychologist. I think he gave me a lot of confidence because sometimes he believes in me more than I believe in myself. And that’s one of the reasons why he’s my coach.”
Celt took the self-imposed pressure off Snigur to get into the Top 100. Instead, her goal when she takes the court now is simply to “show her good game”—the hyper-aggressive shots she enjoys. This led her back to her first goal. In February, she reached her first tour-level semi-final in Cluj-Napoca and then won her first WTA 125 title in Oeiras. In March she entered the top 100. With a 34-11 record this year – and an even more impressive 50-18 since last year’s US Open – Snigur moved up to 77th this week.
Snigur still prefers her courts to be as fast as possible (grass is her favorite surface), but the best demonstration of her mental breakthrough came unexpectedly during this year’s clay court season. In Madrid, playing the first clay-court match of her career, she defeated former Roland Garros semi-finalist Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(13), saving four match points and winning the sixth-longest regular (first to seven) tiebreaker in the third set of the century. At Roland Garros, she picked up another top-20 win from a set down and down 5-3, upsetting Clara Towson 3-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Snigur laughs, remembering those matches.
“So, first of all, you have to understand: I hate clay,” she said firmly. “I don’t like playing on clay. If I want to win a match on clay, I have to play for more than two hours. I don’t like it. This was already the best clay season of my life, when I won more than one match. To be honest, I played in bigger tournaments – Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros – because (my ranking was too high) for smaller tournaments.”
Celt persuaded Snigur to hug on clay, saying that she could still show her “good game” even on the hated mud.
“Here’s what I’m telling you: David gave me confidence,” Snigur said. “He changed his mind. He told me, “Okay, you should play on clay every year. I understand you don’t like it, but you have to try to show what you can do.” And this year it helps me.”
Snigur may have gone back to clay a little, but she’s still glad to have grass under her feet again this month. Three weeks ago she was a quarter-finalist in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, beating Paula Badosa along the way, and now she has the opportunity to extend that winning record even further against a top-10 opponent against Svitolina. And Celt’s principle of focusing on bringing her best game will come in handy again – after all, that’s how Snigur believes she dealt with all her failures in the past.
“I don’t have any pressure on the top players,” she said. “I just want to play my best and enjoy the moment because it’s always good courts, amazing stadiums and a lot of fans.”