Aurélie Sacchelli, Media365, published on Saturday January 18, 2025 at 11:25 a.m.
A few hours after her husband Gaël Monfils, Elina Svitolina also qualified for the round of 16 of the Australian Open, also beating the No. 4 in the ranking, Jasmine Paolini.
Aged two years and three months, little Skaï is undoubtedly too small to realize that this Saturday, January 18, 2025 will remain forever engraved in the lives of her parents. Gaël Monfils and Elina Svitolina both, a few hours apart, eliminated the world No. 4 in the third round of the Australian Open to reach the second week, while they are both rather at the end of their career and were not at all favorites of their match. If “la Monf” achieved the feat of eliminating Taylor Fritz, his wife disposed of the finalist of Roland-Garros and Wimbledon 2024, Jasmine Paolini. Facing the Italian, whom she had never faced before, the Ukrainian won 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 in 1h48 in an eight-break match.
Against Kudermetova in the round of 16
Even though she had broken at the start of the first set, Svitolina then suffered the law of Paolini, who won five games in a row to pocket the first set. But the Ukrainian did not give up, and broke at 1-1 in the second, then maintaining her lead until the end and equalizing at one set all on her fourth set point. So everything came down to the last round, and there was no photo. Paolini completely broke down and did not register a single game, being broken three times on three occasions. The world No. 27 shook a little at the end of the match, having to save two break points when serving to win the match, but she managed to win this sixth and final game. At 30 years old, here she is in the second week in Melbourne for the fifth time in her career! And it will be against a Russian player, Veronika Kudermetova (75th), who beat her in their two confrontations. Will Monday be even more beautiful than Saturday for the Monfils – Svitolina couple?
