Married for more than five years, Svitolina announced that their marriage would be ending on Monday. Elina Svitolina’s sudden announcement regarding the end of her marriage with Gael Monfils has left the world of tennis in shock. Now, a report by French outlet L’Equipe has seemingly given us more details on the end of the marriage, and how it impacted Monfils. As per the report, Monfils was informed about the decision by Svitolina over a phone call. The news left the French tennis star in shock.
“When Monfils learned of the news, it hit him like a ton of bricks, and tennis, which he had often experienced as a kind of gentle madness, suddenly lost all meaning. The Ukrainian tennis star was in China at the time. He was no longer able to play,” the report read. It appears that Monfils was severely impacted by the personal development, causing him to bring an abrupt end to his professional tennis career. Svitolina also appeared to address the toll that the news of their divorce had taken on Monfils. A post shared by SVITO (@elisvitolina) “It’s not always possible to explain everything behind such personal and difficult decisions in a single post. And honestly, some things are simply too personal to share publicly. That was and is my view on announcing the end of our marriage but as some of you saw, Gael’s career ended abruptly after he made the decision to stop based on our situation,” Svitolina wrote in a social media statement, a day after announcing the end of their marriage.
Monfils, who has already played his last Grand Slam at the recent US Open, was preparing to retire from tennis altogether in 2026. The 38-year-old was expected to play a couple of more tournaments, and then bow out in front of a home crowd at the Paris Masters in November. On October 5, he removed himself from the International Tennis Integrity Agency’s anti-doping protocols, making him ineligible to participate in professional tournaments and effectively confirming his retirement.
Monfils was at home in Dubai with their daughter Skai when he received the phone call from Svitolina in late September, according to the L’Equipe report, as quoted by Tennis World USA. Svitolna’s decision seemingly left Monfils devastated, reportedly hitting him like a “ton of bricks”.
However, Monfils retired earlier than planned.
