Gael Monfils eyeing up an unconventional sporting career for his daughter
Gael Monfils has revealed he is encouraging his young daughter Skai to try different sports, but he admits she is already being drawn into tennis.
Monfils and his tennis-playing wife Elina Svitolina welcomed their first child into the world in October 2022, with the couple both continuing their playing careers on the ATP and WTA Tours as they develop their parenting skills.
Now Monfils has spoken about his daughter’s passion for sport and while the two-year-old already showing a real interest in the family business, the Frenchman has revealed he is keen for her to try a variety of different sports, including wrestling and judo.
“To be honest we want her to try every sport other than tennis, but she likes tennis unfortunately,” Monfils told Tennis365 at the UTS Grand Final in London. “She is not spending a lot of time trying tennis, but she like it.
“If she wants to do anything, she can choose herself and most likely this is the sport she will like.
“We want her to explore everything and just because both parents are tennis players, it doesn’t mean she has to be a tennis player as well.
“If she wants to play soccer, golf or wrestling… it’s all cool. I have a friend and his daughter is doing wrestling or judo. It’s quite popular from where I come from.
“I did judo when I was young and whatever she wants, we are open to that.”
Svitolina made a successful return to tennis last year after taking time away from the sport after she fell pregnant and she revealed their child had a big health scare this time last year.
“As all parents know, when you have your own child you have to put other events on hold if they are sick. For a tennis player that might even mean tournaments,” she told the BBC.
“At Christmas (2023), Skai got sick and she had to go to emergency for six hours with me and Gael. She was not feeling good and got very sick.
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“So we had to push back our flight to Auckland, where we played before Melbourne. It was a quick decision to make and we were considering if she would come with us later.
“These are the sort of things you would not think about when you don’t have a child. If a member of the team gets sick you just go anyway. Of course, it’s very different when it is your child.
“We would not have come if she was any worse. Thankfully in the end she got better very quickly and after two days she was feeling much better.
“Health is the priority and for sure if there was a risk of her getting worse then we would not have brought her and she would have stayed home.
“We were worried about her initially but she got better really quick with antibiotics. Then we got a green light for all of us to travel.
“Actually, because of the warmer weather in New Zealand, it was more beneficial for her to recover there from the antibiotics.
“It was the first time she got really sick and this is a new experience for us to deal with as parents, but I’m happy we got through it and it is good we made the decision to bring her here. She is 100% now.”
She also spoke about her relationship with Monfils being the perfect match as she added: “I feel like it helps both of us to analyse and to help each other in tough moments,” Svitolina explained.
“We’re used to it now. It’s been years that we had together, few years that we are married, as well.. When we have tough moments, we know what to say. We know also, you know, you start to know a person what we like, what we don’t like.
“I feel like for us it’s a perfect match (smiling) in a way. Because me, after losses I can be sometimes for a couple of days really moody and really difficult to handle (smiling). So he knows how to treat me and how to, you know, to comfort me.
“Also, you know, he’s very different. I let him also play video games to release all these negative things that sometimes he has after the losses, and sometimes media also pisses him off a bit (smiling).
“In a way I feel like we are used to it now and it helps us because we know how to support each other and we know what we’re going through.”
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