Elina Svitolina reveals what she has learnt about husband Gael Monfils when travelling with him on tour

Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils are one of the biggest power couples in tennis right now.

Svitolina and Monfils, the latter who is retiring this year, have been a couple since 2018, publicly confirming their relationship in 2019.

After a brief separation in 2021, Svitolina and Monfils got married later that year and welcomed their daughter, Skai, in 2022.

Svitolina has made a very impressive start to the 2026 season, and after reaching the Indian Wells quarterfinals she was asked what travelling on tour with Monfils is like.

Elina Svitolina says Gael Monfils has to preserve more energy than her

Svitolina reached the Indian Wells quarterfinals after her opponent Katerina Siniakova retired in the second set of their match.

With the match finishing in unconventional fashion, Svitolina was asked about a number of topics in her post-match press conference, including about her husband Monfils.

When asked what she had learnt about Monfils after travelling on tour with him, Svitolina revealed that he spends a lot of time inside to preserve energy for his matches.

“Interesting question. I would say, I don’t know, he’s [a] very chilled person,” responded Svitolina. “I think, you know, spending less time outside, you know, saving a little bit more energy.

“Of course, you know, he’s eight years older than me, so of course he preserves a lot of energy, more than me (smiling), and his game is more physical. So I think he kind of, you know, shared more of that to me.

“I don’t know, actually. I think it’s a good question for him also to ask what did he take away from me (smiling).”

Elina Svitolina calls for equal prize money at Masters tournaments

Svitolina has been a professional tennis player for 18 years now, and has been ranked as high as three in the world.

The Ukrainian has seen a lot of change in that time, and Svitolina was also asked if she thinks any more could be done to improve equality between the ATP and WTA Tours.

Svitolina called for equal prize money for the ATP and WTA 1000 tournaments, to match the four Grand Slams.

“Well, I think [I] definitely want to see more equal prize money on the WTA tournaments, because of course in Grand Slams we are equal, but I think there is still a big gap between like 250s, 500s, and 1000s, so I think some tournaments of course made it, so I think [I] want to see more of that,” said Svitolina.

“I think there are more things changed over the time when I started, it was years ago now, but yeah, I think we can see that, you know, there are people watching, like the views are great for women’s matches, semifinals, finals. So I think we also deserve a bit more on that.”

Indian Wells offers the same amount of prize money for both men and women, but that is not the case for all tournaments at this level.

At the Cincinnati Open last year, champion Carlos Alcaraz received $1,124,380 in prize money, while Iga Swiatek took home just $752,275, despite both playing the exact same tournament in the best-of-three set format.

The WTA have committed to providing equal prize money at combined 1000 tournaments by 2027 in response to this.