20.10.2026 02:20
World No. 6 Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina announced that she has ended her marriage to former French tennis player Gael Monfils. Svitolina said that the war in her country has been consuming her from within and that she needs to find herself again.
According to BBC News, Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina, ranked 6th in the world, announced that she has ended her marriage to former French tennis player Gael Monfils. The 32-year-old athlete said that behind her decision was the emotional burden created by the war in her country.
In a post on her Instagram account, Svitolina stated that this was the hardest thing she had had to share to date, and described the damage the war had caused within her. The famous tennis player expressed that she felt she needed to find herself again and could not do that within her marriage.
Writing that she experienced sleepless nights no one saw, doubts, and the feeling of slowly losing herself, Svitolina used the phrase, "Some wars are fought inside a person, and someone else's love cannot win them for you."
Svitolina, conveying that 40-year-old Monfils listened to her and respected her need, also emphasized that telling the person she loved about this decision was the hardest thing in her life. The tennis player, who grew up in Odesa, said, "Everyone knows how important Ukraine is to me." The port city of Odesa on the Black Sea coast was the target of intense Russian attacks throughout the war.
The couple, who married in 2021, have a 4-year-old daughter named Skai. Svitolina, stating that their daughter will always be their priority, wrote, "Our marriage is ending, but our family is not."
This year, the couple competed together in mixed doubles at the US Open and advanced to the semifinals. It is reported that Monfils, a former world No. 6 with 13 titles on the ATP Tour, is ending his career and preparing to start a new career in finance at a Swiss asset management company.
Source: BBC