Elina Svitolina has given fans an insight into her family life after sharing a screenshot of a video call with her daughter Skai, who is staying at home as Svitolina prepares to compete in the Cincinnati Open.
Former world No. 3 Svitolina has had a hugely successful season after coming back from maternity leave in March. Last October, the Ukrainian player welcomed her baby daughter Skai with her husband, French tennis player Gael Monfils.
Since then, Svitolina managed to defeat world No. 1 Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon, where she went on to reach the semi-finals, eventually losing to eventual champion Marketa Vondrousova. The 28-year-old is now preparing to compete at the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati, while her husband gets ready to play in the ATP tournament.
However, fans were reminded of the sacrifice that can come with playing on the WTA and ATP Tours as parents. Svitolina previously revealed that the couple decided to leave Skai at home as they believed it was best for her health not to be subjected to the travel and fast pace of the Tours at such a young age.
"No, she's at home. We want her to stay home for the health reasons. Health is No. 1 priority for us. It's really challenging," Svitolina said at the time.
"We know how tiring it can be to travel that much. Tennis requires a lot of traveling, flying, and all this stress. You know, you're not sleeping in your bed, you are constantly, you know, doing something and different places. So we don't want to stress her right now at the beginning," she added.
Moreover, on Saturday, August 12, Svitolina shared an adorable screenshot on her Instagram story of a video call with her daughter. In the picture, Skai can be seen interacting with the family dog while Svitolina looks on smiling from the corner of the screen.
The world No. 27 captioned the picture "Daily routine," followed by a red heart.
Svitolina will face former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in her first round at Cincinnati, who has just come back after three years away from the sport, in which time she gave birth to two children.
Elina Svitolina on why her & Monfils travel without Skaï: “Health is #1 priority. We know how tiring it is to travel.. Tennis requires a lot of flying & stress. You’re not sleeping in your bed, constantly doing something & different places. We don't want to stress her right now”
