We all need to have family, friends, and mentors to grow and succeed. To reach at the very top in
sports, the support structure is vital. In this video we are going to meet Elina
Svitolina’s Family and her husband, Gaël Monfils. Welcome to Luxury Plus channel. Please let me
know the biggest influences in your life in the comment section below.
On 12 September 1994, Elina Svitolina was born in the port city of Odessa, Ukraine.
Standing at five feet and nine inches, she is a relentless counter puncher.
Using her speed and anticipation, she returns most of the balls.
Parents
Her mother, Olena Svvitolina, was a professional rower and did karate.
As a former athlete, she inspired Svitolina to take interest in sports.
Olena has been a huge source of support, a guide in her personal and professional life.
Olena loves to travel, to experience diverse cultures and places.
According to Svitolina, her mom is the leader of the family. She pushes, drives her on, providing
her the motivation to improve, to become the best. Her father, Mikhaylo Svitolina, was a professional
wrestler. Like most typical little girls, she longed for her father’s approval.
Unable to stand the fact her brother was getting all the attention,
she started to play tennis at the age of five. According to Elina Svitolina, her father loves
green tea. He is a bit of a green tea buff after doing research over the years.
Mikhaylo is a very even-tempered person. Whenever Elina Svitolina loses a match, he
boosts her spirits with kind words. He is always there, taking away the weight of expectations.
Career Highlights [dont voice or show in video]
In twenty seventeen, Elina Svitolina was ranked third, a career high,
surpassing her fellow Ukrainian compatriots Kateryna Bondarenko and Alona Bondarenko.
As a junior, she won the French Open girls event in 2010, beating Tunisian Ons Jabeur in the final.
She reached her first professional singles final at the $25,000 tournament in Kharkiv in May 2010.
She has reached semifinals of the 2019 Wimbledon Championships and the 2019 US Open.
Svitolina has won 14 WTA singles titles. She is also a formidable
doubles player, winning two titles. It is a little-known fact that she was
named after famous actress Elina Bystritska who is an icon in Russia’s film industry.
Her acting career spanned over 6 decades. Svitolina loves spending time in the kitchen.
The obsession of wonderful cooking meals came from her parents. For the junior Wimbledon tournament,
she came to London with her mother. Staying in a small apartment, they fell in love with the city.
Now, she is a very happy London resident. You can find her at her favorite vegetable stations,
drinking smoothies. Picking fresh avocados and browsing shops. She
thinks she can spend hours learning about different spices without getting tired.
Her closet is full of shoes. One pair is custom made with her name from New York.
Family’s support can be wonderful, but it can also stifle growth. Sometimes it is important
to move out of the shadow and develop as a person. Harsh realities can teach you important lessons.
Svitolina says, “I think the hardest part is that my parents were involved in my tennis.
No matter where I played, they always followed. My parents wanted me to win every game. At some
point it is important that every parent walk away and my parents understood this five years ago.
When my parents stopped traveling with me, I no longer counted on them. If I lost a game,
I only blamed myself and through this process, I found my own way.”
Her brother, Yulian, was a professional tennis player. He is nine years older,
so he is protective of his younger sister. He is always there to help her out during difficult
moments. He started playing tennis at the age of eight. She picked up tricks and tips by watching
him play and train from the sidelines. Yulian owns a sports supply shop and
runs a tennis-coaching program in Los Angeles. He works with young players,
trying to adjust their techniques. To improve their game, to make them more rounded players.
Elina Svitolina was his first student. Being a brother, it was more natural to coach a sister.
But there were also challenges to unlock her endless potential.
Elina Svitolina married fellow WTA tennis player Gaël Monfils in July 2021.
The schedule is exhausting, forcing her to be on the road most of the year. It can get lonely
and depressing. She believes it is a bonus to fall in love with a fellow tennis star.
As athletes, they understand the emotional and physical demands to stay at the top.
She believes having someone who played at the highest level, and who understands you,
shares your goals can be so uplifting. Nothing is perfect. Of course, there are few negatives.
She starts her practice early in the morning while he likes his twelve-hour sleep. But they are happy
and accommodating most of the time. (laugh) Even though they were aware of each other,
they never met in an informal setting. One day, Monfils texted Svitolina, inviting her to have
drinks with his friends. Despite traveling from Singapore to Paris and suffering from jet lag,
she accepted the invitation. They enjoyed knowing each other at a much deeper level.
The connection and the chemistry were immediate. After their first evening out,
they stayed connected every day through calls and text.
Marriage Proposal
She loves walking and exploring nature, so Monfils took her to a four-mile hike for the
marriage proposal. Everything was set, but he could not find the perfect spot he picked out.
There was no way to access Google maps because of poor cell coverage. Finally,
he reached his spot, but it had too many people. His mind working fast, he thought about taking
her to a restaurant for the magical moment. But it was also crowded.
Unknowingly, she led him to a perfect place, eight hundred meters away from
the parking lot. Everything fell into place, and he proposed. It was more nerve-wracking
than even the biggest match of his life. He believes finding a soul mate is a blessing.
Her Husband
Gaël Sébastien Monfils was born and raised in Paris. Monfils was a gifted athlete,
a child prodigy at school. He won French under-13 and under-14 100 meter championships.
It was only his love for tennis that stopped him going on to compete at a higher level.
His coach is on record as saying that Monfils could have made the Olympic 100
meter final. His explosive sprint was frightening.
He loves collecting watches and driving expensive cars. His total prize money is over $20 million,
making him twenty fourth highest all time earner in tennis.
Monfils was ranked the world’s number one junior player in February 2004.
In the same year, he won the boys’ singles titles at the Australian Open, the French Open and
Wimbledon. He was also crowned International Tennis Federation youth world champion.
His win streak at junior grand slams ended at the US Open with a third-round loss to Viktor Troicki.
The French number one has won eleven ATP career titles. In November 2016,
he was ranked sixth, a career high so far. He has reached Australian Open quarterfinals
in 2016 and 2022. He also contested Semifinals of the 2008 French Open and 2016 US Open.
Monfils has a thunderous forehand. He is a great entertainer with trick shots and
unpredictable stroke play. He slides all over the court, earning a nickname La Monf
(Sliderman) due to his unusual sliding technique, especially on clay courts.
Monfils is an eccentric character both on and off the court. He appeared in the
music video for "Hello" by Martin Solveig and Dragonette. He is regarded as the best
player to never win a Grand Slam. But he is popular with fans because of his personality.
Family
Monfils’s parents are from Caribbean islands, which is a part of French territories.
His father, Rufin Monfils, is from Guadeloupe and a former pro football player who also worked
as a France Telecom employee. His mother, Sylvette Cartesse,
is from Martinique and worked as a nurse. His younger brother, Daryl Monfils, was born on
1 March 1993. He is also a French tennis player. It is not a well-known fact that Daryl Monfils
made his ATP main draw debut at the 2012 Open Sud de France
in the doubles draw partnering his brother Gaël Monfils in which they lost in the first round.