Elina Svitolina to skip over Roland Garros due to mental fatigue

Ukrainian Elina Svitolina will miss the French Open for the first time in a decade as she has opted to extend her break from tennis following Russia’s invasion of her home country.

Former world No 3 Svitolina announced at the end of March that she is taking a break from the sport as she admitted it was mentally and physically difficult to compete while the Ukraine is under attack. The Odesa-born Svitolina has now decided to skip the French Open, which gets underway on March 22, but she will still travel to Roland Garros to support her husband Gael Monfils.

Speaking to insidethegame, Svitolina said:

“I will not be playing Roland Garros unfortunately. This is a decision that I made a couple of days ago.For me I just need to take time to settle down and be ready when I am [ready]. I will be at the Roland Garros with Gael."

She continued:

“I will be supporting him every step of the way but performing is a very different thing. You have pressure, you have pressure from yourself, you want to perform well but when I am not 100 per cent this is a very tough for me to perform at the very best level.”

In another recent interview, Svitolina opened up about how difficult it has been:

“It’s been a tough couple of months for me to deal with everything and of course, having my family back in Ukraine is having a big impact as well. So for me, this has been a really, really rough couple of months mentally to hold that – everything – on my shoulders. That’s why it was a better decision for me to take my time to really settle down with everything."