Elina Svitolina has confirmed that Gaël Monfils ended his tennis career prematurely because of the circumstances surrounding the breakdown of their marriage.
The Frenchman, 40, had planned to retire at November’s Paris Masters but was registered as retired by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) on October 5, bringing an early end to his 22-year career.
Svitolina’s comments, in a new social media post on Tuesday, came a day after she announced the end of their five-year marriage in another one. Having initially cited the psychological and emotional toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Svitolina clarified that there were other reasons for the separation, as well as providing the first public explanation for Monfils’ early retirement.
In her follow-up Instagram post, Svitolina wrote: “Gael’s career ended abruptly after he made the decision to stop based on our situation.”
Monfils, a former world No. 6 and 13-time ATP Tour singles champion, announced last year that 2026 would be his final season, with a farewell appearance planned in front of his home crowd in Paris.
He had also been scheduled to play as a wild card at an ATP 250 event in Lyon this week but withdrew for what the tournament described as “personal reasons.” His final professional match was a straight-sets defeat by Learner Tien in the second round of the U.S. Open on September 3.
Svitolina, 32 and ranked world No. 6, also clarified that the impact of the war in Ukraine was only one factor behind her decision to end their marriage.
“When you’ve been living through the reality of war for more than 4.5 years, experiencing so many different situations, emotions, and difficult moments, you naturally start seeing life differently,” she wrote.
“At some point, I simply realized that I didn’t want to keep living a life where I wasn’t truly happy. And believe me, coming to this decision was anything but easy.”
The Ukrainian added that she continued to love and respect Monfils, but that some aspects of their separation were too personal to share publicly.
The pair married in July 2021 and have a daughter, Skai, born in October 2022 and they reached the US Open mixed doubles semi-finals together in August.
In Monday’s statement, Svitolina said they would continue raising Skai together: “Our marriage is ending, but our family is not. We will always be her parents, side by side, at every step of her life.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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