Former No. 3 Elina Svitolina gave birth to her daughter with Gael Monfils this morning. The French tennis player announced the news of him becoming a father on Twitter. Monfils and Svitolina have been tennis’ power couple since they announced their relationship on their joint Instagram account g.e.m.s.life back in January 2019. A relationship within the tennis world came as no surprise for the 36-year-old Frenchman who had previously dated Dominika Cibulkova and his compatriot Alize Cornet.
The pair announced that they were taking a break in February of last year, even deactivating the account, before shocking the world with an engagement post just two months later. Monfils and Svitolina subsequently got married in July 2021 with Svitolina changing her name to Elina Monfils, though the Ukrainian continues to go by Svitolina on the tennis court.
I had the most amazing night of my life, which ended with the most beautiful gift around 6:00Am.
Elina was strong and brave💪🏾🙏🏾
I can t thx enough my wife and God for this special moment 🙏🏾
Welcome to the world my little princess SKAÏ ❤️ pic.twitter.com/gWwg6c7pYb— Gael Monfils (@Gael_Monfils) October 15, 2022
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It is not yet clear when both Monfils and Svitolina will return to action. It seems safe to assume that Svitolina, who last took to the court in the first round at the Miami Open in March, will be out for the rest of the season. Monfils, meanwhile, has a 14-7 record for the season. He started the year in excellent fashion, winning the title in Adelaide and reaching the last eight at the Australian Open, but he has had to battle injuries since and has not stepped on to court since retiring in the second set against Jack Draper in Montreal. But this happy news will have surely made it a great end to 2022 for both.
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