Elina Svitolina has ended her marriage to Gaël Monfils, saying the psychological toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine left her unable to continue in the relationship. In a statement posted to Instagram on Monday, the world number six called it “the most difficult thing I have ever had to share”.
“Everyone knows how much Ukraine means to me,” the 32-year-old wrote. “What I have rarely spoken about is what the war has done to me inside.” She described “the sleepless nights, the doubts, and the feeling of slowly losing myself”, before adding: “With time, I came to understand that I need to find my way back to myself and that I cannot do that within our marriage.”
Svitolina and Monfils married on 16 July 2021 and have a daughter, Skai, born in October 2022. “Skai will always come first,” Svitolina wrote. “Our marriage is ending, but our family is not.”
A break that was never only about tennis
Monday’s statement reframes a decision Svitolina made 13 months ago. In September 2025, days after losing in three sets to Jasmine Paolini as Ukraine fell in the Billie Jean King Cup semi-finals, she shut down her season with the ranking slipping to 13 and the explanation that she was “not in the right emotional space”. She said then that she was giving herself “the space I need to heal and recharge, instead of forcing it”.
“Last year, I told you I needed to step away from the court because I wasn’t in the right emotional space,” she wrote this week. “What you didn’t see were the sleepless nights, the doubts, and the feeling of slowly losing myself.”
On court, the reset worked. Svitolina opened 2026 by beating Wang Xinyu 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) for the Auckland title, her 19th on tour, reached the final in Dubai and won her 20th in Rome in May. She climbed back to sixth in the rankings and on 17 October sealed a place at the WTA Finals — becoming the first mother to qualify for the season-ending event since Kim Clijsters in 2010. Two days later she announced the separation.
Monfils’ exit now makes sense
The statement also answers a question that had puzzled French tennis for a fortnight. Monfils, 40, had said 2026 would be his final season and was expected to take his farewell at the Paris Masters, in front of the crowd that had followed him since he arrived as the 2004 junior world number one. Instead he played neither Lyon nor Paris, and on 5 October the International Tennis Integrity Agency listed him as retired after he was removed from the anti-doping testing pool. His last professional match had been a second-round defeat by American Learner Tien at the US Open.
L’Équipe’s Franck Ramella reported that the end of the marriage was the trigger, writing that when Monfils learned the news “it hit him like a ton of bricks, and tennis suddenly lost all meaning”. He leaves with 13 ATP titles, the last of them at the 2025 ASB Classic, and a career-high ranking of sixth, reached on 7 November 2016 — the same position his wife holds now.
Svitolina was careful to place no blame. “Gaël has loved me through my greatest joys and my darkest moments, and I have loved him with all my heart,” she wrote, adding that when she explained what she needed, “Gaël listened. He has respected what I need with a strength and grace I will never forget.”
What comes next
Svitolina’s next assignment is the WTA Finals at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden from 8-15 November, an event relocated from Riyadh after the three-year Saudi hosting deal was cut short by six months over security concerns tied to the 2026 Iran war. She joins a field including Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Mirra Andreeva, Jessica Pegula and Linda Nosková, with the final place still contested. Svitolina won the title in Singapore in 2018, the biggest of her career; four Grand Slam semi-finals remain the closest she has come to a major.
Her significance in the sport since February 2022 has rested as much on what she has carried as on what she has won. She has declined handshakes with Russian and Belarusian opponents, used podiums and press conferences to keep attention on the invasion, and raised funds for Ukrainian children through her foundation — all while returning from maternity leave twice over and rebuilding a top-10 ranking. The cost of that has now been stated plainly, in her own words, for the first time.
- Married: 16 July 2021; daughter Skai born October 2022
- Svitolina: 20 WTA titles, 2018 WTA Finals champion, four-time Grand Slam semi-finalist, current world number six
- Monfils: 13 ATP titles, career-high world number six (November 2016), retired 5 October 2026
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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