Gael Monfils waved goodbye to fans at Roland Garros as he lost his final match at the clay-court Grand Slam and during his farewell ceremony, he paid an emotional tribute to his wife Elina Svitolina.
Twenty-one years after he made his French Open debut as an 18-year-old, the final curtain came down for Monfils in Paris on Monday, May 25, as he went down 2-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 0-6 in the first round against fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston in the late match on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Tennis 365 reported.
Having announced last year that the 2025 season was going to be his farewell campaign, there was always going to be a ceremony for one of tennis’ great entertainers after he played his last match.
Tearful Monfils said, “It’s a mixed feeling between happiness, sadness, and it’s a lot of feelings, a lot of emotion. It’s very hard to describe. Somehow I don’t want to dig too deep yet, but it’s not easy.”
But one of the biggest cheers of the night came when Monfils paid tribute to Svitolina, whom he started dating in 2019 before getting married in 2021.
He said, “Normally you speak French, Elina, so I’m going to thank Elina [in French]. I’d like to thank my wife because without her, I might not be here tonight. We’ve been together for eight years, eight wonderful years."
"You’ve been there for me, but I’m not talking about Elina Svitolina the tennis player, but Elina the woman, the real woman, my wife who is there for me through thick and thin, who has always known how to support me as a man,” heMonfils added.
The French star then paid tribute to the people who stood beside him throughout his remarkable career. He thanked his parents, siblings, the French Tennis Federation (FFT), and his longtime friends and fellow French stars Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet, and Gilles Simon.
