“I could feel even through the screen his pain” – Svitolina happy for Monfils’ win and support after more GEMS Life joy in Paris

It’s been a good week for fans of GEMS life as Elina Svitolina moved into the third round of Roland-Garros, a day after Gael Monfils won an epic first round

Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils at the 2023 French Open Image Credit: AI / Reuters / Panoramic/ Tennis Majors

Haresh Ramchandani

May 31, 2023

It’s been a good week for tennis’ golden couple – Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina. Monfils won his first ATP level as a father in a late-night first round five-set epic on Tuesday. Svitolina won her first title as a mother over the weekend and then her first Grand Slam match as a mother earlier in the week.

The former world No 3 advanced to the third round of the French Open for the eight time in a row on Wednesday with a three-set win over Australia’s Storm Hunter and later spoke about how happy she was about her husband winning the previous night.

“I’m happy of the match that he could win yesterday. He didn’t give up in the end even though he was really struggling. I could feel even through the screen his pain because he was running a lot and with the stress, obviously, affects your fitness as well,” Svitolina said in her press conference today.

“All this time where we were training together starting from January, him coming back from the injury, me from pregnancy, he was working really, really hard. I know how many hours he puts into this, and he wants desperately to come back to the level where he’s been and working towards this goal slowly. Of course, he is not 25 years old, and we could see that yesterday. The guy is 22; he is 36, but still, you know, with a lot of experience. I feel like he still has a lot of good matches, maybe similar matches to yesterday, in his bag. He is going to be back playing better I’m sure very soon just with a little bit more matches on this level.”

He was there for me today. Made such a big effort to come and support me, especially in a tough day like today
Elina Svitolina

Monfils, Roland-Garros, 2023 — Gael Monfils wins at Roland-Garros 2023 © AI / Reuters / Panoramic

A few hours after his epic win, Monfils was back at Roland-Garros on his day off to cheer his wife from the stands during her second round match. Svitolina said she was even more motivated that Monfils made the effort to cheer for her in person after such an exhasuting night.

“It gave me actually motivation to go again today. He was there for me today. Made such a big effort to come and support me, especially in a tough day like today. So really it motivated me to fight and not give up and play every point, try to put 100% effort out there,” the Ukranian said.

Svitolina faces Russia’s Anna Blinkova in the third round but before that she will be cheering her husband once again as Monfils takes on sixth seed Holger Rune in a blockbuster second round match on Thursday.

“It’s going to be exciting match against Rune. Hopefully not too late so I can come and watch and support him as well.”