{"id":427459,"date":"2026-01-21T09:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T09:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427459\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T09:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T09:46:09","slug":"why-elina-svitolina-is-prioritising-her-mental-health-at-the-australian-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/427459\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Elina Svitolina is prioritising her mental health at the Australian Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the highly competitive world of professional tennis, it is refreshing to learn that Elina Svitolina has her priorities in order.<\/p>\n

Married to former top 10 player Ga\u00ebl Monfils and a mother to three-year-old daughter Ska\u00ef, family comes first for the Ukrainian.<\/p>\n

But mental health is also important to Svitolina, which is why she decided to end her 2025 season early.<\/p>\n

Svitolina, a former world number three, took a break from the tour following Ukraine’s loss to Italy in the Billie Jean King Cup semifinals last September.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t been feeling like myself lately,” Svitolina wrote on Instagram at the time.<\/p>\n

“I’m not in the right emotional space, and I don’t feel ready to play, so I am therefore ending the season here.<\/p>\n

“Over the years, I’ve learned that this sport isn’t about money, fame, or rankings \u2014 it’s about being ready to fight and to give your all.<\/p>\n

“Right now, I’m simply not at the level mentally or emotionally to do that.”<\/p>\n

Loading Instagram content<\/p>\n

Svitolina made her playing return in Auckland earlier this month, winning the WTA event only a week out from the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

Ranked 12th in the world, the 31-year-old’s Melbourne Park campaign is travelling smoothly, with consecutive straight-sets victories in the opening two rounds.<\/p>\n

After defeating Polish qualifier Linda Klimovi\u010dov\u00e1 7-5, 6-1 on Wednesday, Svitolina emphasised that maintaining her mental health was a higher priority than on-court results.<\/p>\n

“It was important to just step back (last year),” said Svitolina when she addressed her post-match media conference.<\/p>\n

“Of course, I was sad that I didn’t give myself a chance to maybe qualify for the WTA Finals or maybe get back in [the] top 10, but this was the right choice that I made.<\/p>\n

“I can see now that I’m more refreshed. I’m ready to face difficult situations in the matches \u2026 when I face a difficult situation, I’m ready to accept that sometimes things are not going your way.”<\/p>\n

\"Elina<\/p>\n

Elina Svitolina won in Auckland earlier this month in her return to the WTA Tour. (AP\/Photosport: Alan Lee)<\/p>\n

Svitolina admitted that had she not taken the break last year, she might not have contested the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

“If I would [have] push myself to finish the year, really force myself, I don’t think I would start the season even playing in Australia, because I would be really dead mentally,” Svitolina said.<\/p>\n

“Physically, I’m not even sure that it would be a good option for me, because I might get injured in this kind of mental state.”<\/p>\n

Svitolina will play 23rd seed Diana Shnaider in the third round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the highly competitive world of professional tennis, it is refreshing to learn that Elina Svitolina has her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,6571,41733,49376,13830,188599,514,171805,85,747,5525],"class_list":["post-427459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-open","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-emotional-health","tag-gael-monfils","tag-melbourne-park","tag-mental-health","tag-second-round","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}