World No. 11 Gael Monfils has admitted that he is struggling in confidence after a start to the 2017 that does not quite match up to his excellent 2017.
Monfils: In all honesty, the start of the year has been a little disappointing and below my expectations. I realize that there are always some difficult times to go through during a season and that I need to continue to work to overcome this situation.”
Monfils will drop some points this week, having fallen at the round-of-16 in Indian Wells. He made the quarter-finals last year, and reached the same stage of the next main event the Miami Masters. He has had a solid start to the season, with a pair of quarter-finals and two Round-of-16 finishes so far this season, the first coming at the Australian Open (l. to Nadal.) He fell out of the Top Ten after he failed to match his previous Australian Open finish in 2016, when he reached the quarter-finals.
Monfils says he and his team have a plan in place for the rest of the year: “My focus is on fine tuning my preparation for the tournaments to come and (to) find some confidence again. With this being said, we might need to make some adjustments to the schedule that we (have) established at the end of last year.”
Monfils has struggled with injuries throughout his career, notably a knee injury. 2016 proved one of the Frenchman’s most consistent years in staying healthy, and he was able to put together a career-best season, reaching his first US Open semi-final and finishing the year at the ATP World Tour Finals by virtue of a season where he reached his career-high ranking of No.6.
Monfils has been replaced by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the top-ranking Frenchman in the ATP rankings following Tsonga’s titles in Rotterdam and Marseille.
