WIMBLEDON, England -- On Sunday, Ukrainian Elina Svitolina defeated Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in an unforgettable tennis match. Two days later, still riding that emotion, Svitolina stunned World No.1 Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2 to reach the semifinals at the All England Club.

Each match held its own level of importance and consequence:

“I feel responsibility,” Svitolina said after beating Azarenka. “If I’m going out to play this match against Russian, Belarusian, I feel of course more pressure that I need to win. That’s why it means a lot to get these kinds of wins.

“In my own way, to bring this victory, small victory, to Ukraine.”

Tuesday's results

It’s been more than 500 days since Russia invaded Ukraine, initiating a conflict that has caused tens of thousands of deaths, including significant numbers of civilians and children.

It’s the people of Ukraine, Svitolina said, that she’s playing for here.

“I know that lots of people back in Ukraine watching,” she told reporters Tuesday. “I got a really massive amount of messages from last round. I didn’t really check my phone yet today, but I think there will be a lot of messages, a lot of news.

“There was many videos also on Internet where the kids are watching on their phones. This really makes my heart melt seeing this. Just happy I could bring little happiness to people of Ukraine.”

It’s been less than nine months since Svitolina and husband and French tennis star Gael Monfils welcomed daughter Skai into the world. Svitolina thinks both motherhood and the struggle back home have made her a different player.

Wimbledon: Scores | Draws | Order of play

“I think it’s mixture of everything,” she said. “Also, I think war made me stronger and also made me mentally stronger. Mentally, I don’t take difficult situations as like a disaster, you know? There are worse things in life. I’m just more calmer. I look at things a bit differently.”

When they met at the net, Swiatek told Svitolina she hopes she wins the tournament.

“I know that for sure she wants it really bad,” Swiatek said in her post-match press conference. “So I will be rooting for her, yeah.

“I think she played with more freedom and more guts. Sometimes she really just let go of her hand and she played really, really fast. I don’t know if she played like that before because we just played once. We also practiced in Australia. I didn’t remember that she was changing rhythm so much in terms of playing these faster shots sometimes.”

For the 44 million back home in Ukraine, Svitolina’s success has been a welcome distraction, an escape of sorts, from the grim realities of war. Former ATP Tour players Alexandr Dolgopolov and Sergiy Stakhovsky are actually in uniform and fighting.

Ukraine, which has never been a tennis superpower, managed to put three women into the third round (including Marta Kostyuk) and two into the fourth, Svitolina and Lesia Tsurenko. Svitolina has now reached her third major semifinal.

It had to be a difficult match for both Svitolina and Swiatek.

They are good friends and while Russia borders Ukraine on the east, Swiatek’s Poland lies to the west. Swiatek wears a small ribbon, colored light blue and yellow like the Ukraine flag, on her hat. She has said she’ll continue to wear it until there is peace in the region. A year ago, Swiatek and Agnieszka Radwanska hosted a charity benefit in Krakow to raise money for the effort in Ukraine.

As Svitolina acknowledged in her on-court interview, Swiatek was one of the first to support Ukraine in the tennis community.

Their embrace at net was touching.

“It was much tougher game I would say because she’s a great person, she’s a big champion,” Svitolina said. “She’s done so much, and doing still so much for Ukraine. We really admire her.”

In a perfect world, sports and politics never mingle. And yet, it’s perfectly obvious that isn’t possible.

A recent twitter post from @ukrtennis_eng -- not an official site -- put it this way:

The Friday evening multitasking for a tennis fan in Ukraine:

  • Trying to cheer for Elina Svitolina at Wimbledon.
  • Trying to stay alive.

Svitolina says she talks to her maternal grandmother, who lives in the southern port city of Odesa, almost every day.

“She’s over 85 years old, so it’s difficult for her to travel,” Svitolina said. “Yeah, her health is not good enough to go out of Ukraine. She loves home. Yeah, it would be impossible for her to leave the city even.”

Svitolina understands her contributions on the tennis court are relatively insignificant, contrasted with the life-and-death stakes back home.

“It’s really unbelievable what they are doing for our country,” Svitolina said. “I can’t thank enough for their bravery, for what they are going through. It really takes a lot to go to fight for your country.

“All Ukrainians, we are here to help them to win this war.”