{"id":4158,"date":"2026-10-20T08:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=4158"},"modified":"2026-10-20T08:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T08:58:07","slug":"tennis-star-svitolina-says-emotional-toll-of-ukraine-war-led-to-monfils-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=4158","title":{"rendered":"Tennis star Svitolina says emotional toll of Ukraine war led to Monfils separation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina has announced the end of her marriage with French former tennis player Ga\u00ebl Monfils, citing the emotional impact of the war in her country.<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old, who is ranked number six in the world, wrote in a heartfelt post on Instagram about the effect the conflict and “what the war has done to me inside”.<\/p>\n

“This is the most difficult thing I have ever had to share,” she wrote, saying “I need to find my way back to myself”. Svitolina said she felt she could not do that within her marriage.<\/p>\n

She said her husband Monfils, 40, “listened” and “respected what I need with a strength and grace I will never forget”.<\/p>\n

“Some battles happen deep inside you, and no amount of love from someone else can win them for you,” the four-time Grand Slam semi-finalist wrote.<\/p>\n

It was “the hardest thing I have ever had to tell the person I love”, Svitolina said.<\/p>\n

“Everyone knows how much Ukraine means to me,” Svitolina, who grew up in Odesa, said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine’s Black Sea port city has been heavily bombed by Russia throughout the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n

“What you didn’t see were the sleepless nights, the doubts, and the feeling of slowly losing myself.”<\/p>\n

The tennis power couple married in 2021 and have one child together – a four-year-old daughter called Skai.<\/p>\n

Svitolina said her daughter “will always come first”, adding “our marriage is ending, but our family is not”.<\/p>\n

Monfils, a former world number six, was expected to play the final tournament of his career at next month’s Paris Masters in an emotional farewell.<\/p>\n

However, the two-time Grand Slam semi-finalist’s retirement was effectively confirmed last week when he appeared on the International Tennis Integrity Authority’s list of retired players.<\/p>\n

Once a player removes themselves from anti-doping protocols, they are not eligible to compete in professional tournaments.<\/p>\n

Monfils, who won 13 titles on the ATP Tour, is preparing to start a new career in finance after joining a Swiss wealth management firm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ukrainian tennis star Elina Svitolina has announced the end of her marriage with French former tennis player Ga\u00ebl<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ukraine"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4160,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions\/4160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}