Magda Linette had a rough start to 2021, needing to have knee surgery that forced her out of the Australian Open.

She lost five of her first six matches upon return and probably never would have guessed that a few months later she would be storming into the third round of Wimbledon with a straight-sets victory over No.3 seed and 2019 semi-finalist Elina Svitolina.

Linette had never defeated a top-10 player in a completed match before, but the world No.44 looked as determined as ever to change that on Thursday.

The 29-year-old, who has been confirmed among Poland’s Olympic squad for both singles and doubles, wrapped up a convincing 6-3, 6-4 win over Svitolina in a mere 64 minutes on the No.2 Court at the All England Club, handing the Ukrainian her earliest Grand Slam defeat in three years.

“It was a challenging time on and off the court for me,” Linette told tennis.com of her struggles earlier this year. “I just felt I was pushing so hard with my rehab, with everything and put so much pressure on myself that maybe I needed a little step back, relax and look a little bit from a bigger perspective. And that's what I did.”

Speaking at her press conference here, she added: "It’s huge for me. I think twice I was so close to beat Elina, I was close to winning a set twice. I think I lacked experience and everything was a bit overwhelming, and I think because of those matches then, I gained a lot of experience and I knew way better what to do on court and how to handle myself.

"So it means a lot, I just proved to myself I could beat these kind of players and I’m really happy I managed to beat somebody ranked much higher than me at a big tournament and on a bigger stage."

Svitolina admits she is not in the best space mentally at the moment and the 26-year-old acknowledged she was in desperate need for a reset to rediscover her form.

“When you play Grand Slam, is all the time a lot of different kind of pressure. Sometimes it's tough to handle but it’s part of the job,” said the world No.5. “You have to try to be strong, try to be good to yourself and try to overcome the fears, the difficulties.

“Today probably I was not fresh mentally to do that. I have been on the Tour for years now and been different kind of situations. But right now I wouldn't say it's very smooth times in my career right now.”

With an average 21-13 win-loss record for the season, Svitolina has not added to her tally of 15 titles since the postponed clay season last September, and lost in the third round at Roland-Garros to eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova last month.

“For sure, it's a tough time, but I have been in these situations in my career few times. And it's the matter of how you come back, how you bounce back from tough losses, tough times in the career,” she added.

“Mentally for sure I need to reset, I need to rest. I need feel again fresh to play the upcoming tournaments.”

Svitolina started by breaking the Linette serve but the Poznan-native scooped the next four games, punishing the Ukrainian with deep and powerful groundstrokes.

The No.3 seed fought hard to avoid going down a double-break in game six but Linette did not dwell on her missed opportunities and served out the opening set at love as the on-court clock hit 30 minutes.

A late break in the second set put Linette in the position to serve for the match and she did not flinch as she once again posted a love service game to reach the third round at Wimbledon for a second consecutive time, and defeat Svitolina for the first time in three meetings.

The Pole fired 28 winners against just 15 unforced errors and converted 3/9 break points to set up a clash with Spanish No.30 seed Paula Badosa. 

Against Badosa, Linette will try to hit a new milestone as she attempts to reach the second week at a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.