Last month, Elina Svitolina announced on her Instagram account that her five-year marriage to Gael Monfils was coming to an end. In the post, she cited personal struggles inflicted by the ongoing war in Ukraine. The pair made their relationship public on the very same platform back in 2019. Two years before their engagement, @g.e.m.s.life invited the world into their relationship through spontaneous and humorous Instagram posts—a now quaint-seeming use of social media since replaced by businesslike profiles full of #ad posts, paid partnerships, and haphazard photo dumps drizzled with the occasional thirst trap. 

Svitolina concluded her post with a simple request from her and Monfils: “kindness” and “space.” What ensued after could not have strayed further from this ask.

The online backlash against Svitolina became so overbearing that Monfils’ first public statement on the matter was partially a defense of his former partner, condemning the online abuse, which ranged from accusations of infidelity to blatant misogyny. 

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that a sentimental moment for the tennis community was suddenly hijacked by the manosphere. 

The display of their romantic intimacy on @g.e.m.s.life garnered more than 135,000 followers and captivated fans and players alike. The page to this day is followed by players such as Stan Wawrinka, Frances Tiafoe, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and even a champion from the prior generation in Mary Pierce. Some of their earliest posts are littered with the likes of a young Marta Kostyuk and Carlos Alcaraz before his seven major titles—or even a shadow of a mustache. 

Even the great Roger Federer couldn’t hide his fandom. He made a cameo on their account and is a part of an evergreen viral post after hilariously failing the “G.E.M.S. Challenge” by hitting Monfils in the groin with a tennis ball.

Now the page remains as a bleak relic of a largely diminished generation on tour and a simpler time on social media. 

Laughs and cheesy love quotes aside, we witnessed Svitolina and Monfils progress from a couple who re-created viral trends to a married couple with a little daughter. Although a new post has yet to be published since 2024, a mature and sentimental display of affection took its place. They graced the court together in multiple mixed doubles events—making the semifinals of this year’s US Open doubles invitational—and supported one another in their respective boxes, often wearing a distressed expression that alluded to the possibility they were more invested in each other’s success than their own at times.

Now, into the void left by G.E.M.S. steps the manosphere.

A popular theory spread in these spaces involves something called “the green line test,” which primarily analyzes how a heterosexual couple appear with each other in photos to determine the power dynamics within their relationship. So if a man is standing up straight while a woman is leaning into him, the green lines drawn would indicate that the man is dominant as the woman is being submissive by leaning into him. Thus, we are witnessing a true alpha and all is well in the relationship. 

The test highlights other aspects of these photos such as hand placement, the posture of a pet if present, and more salaciously the direction in which the respective couple’s genitals are facing. 

In the case of Svitolina and Monfils, the creator of the test wasted no time to provide a collage of photos displaying Svitolina leaning away from Monfils, grabbing the back of his head during kisses, or even highlighting her tattoo as evidence of the test’s validity. Just a day after the announcement, in a post that has now reached more than 1.5 million views, the account asked: “Do you believe in green line theory or not yet?”

The notion that a few photos can reveal the infrastructure of a romantic relationship is not only ridiculous, but displays one of the many elaborate performances had solely to dehumanize a woman and confine her worth to her sexual organs, especially if she’s a professional on her own merit and her decision is against a man’s best interests.

Misogyny is alive and well, not only in the tennis world but everywhere else. It doesn’t take a major breakup between a tennis power couple to illuminate this. Yet what is most frustrating is the fact that grace and understanding over a personal decision are provided based on a player’s gender rather than a common courtesy, or at the very least, how they carry themselves on and off the court.