Gael Monfils Satisfied with Huge Effort as he exits Australian Open, Following Retirement with Shelton - UBITENNIS

Gael Monfils Satisfied with Huge Effort as he exits Australian Open, Following Retirement with Shelton

Gael Monfils' Australian Open ended in heartbreak as he was forced to retire against Ben Shelton.

By Anshu Taneja
8 Min Read
(@atptour - Twitter)

Gael Monfils was hobbling, and yet still carried on blasting baseline winners and passing shots. But even he knew he couldn’t hang on for much longer.

Three successive long and tiring matches saw him put out 30th seed Mpetshi Perricard in five sets in the opening round, followed by another win over Daniel Altmaier. He then caused the biggest upset of the tournament in knocking out fourth seed Taylor Fritz in the last 32.  But today he faced the booming left-handed serves and swashbuckling aura of Ben Shelton on the other side of the net.

There was literally nothing to separate the two players who were meeting for the first time, and they split the first two sets on tie-breaks, where even the winning margin was the same. Monfils broke to go ahead 2-1 in the third but was broken back and the set went to another tie-breaker, won by Shelton. And then two games into the fourth, Monfils decided enough was finally enough for his 38-year-old body.

The accumulation of matches since the start of the year – which included becoming the oldest winner of an ATP event with his Auckland triumph prior to the tournament – finally took its toll.

“Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the match, but I’m happy with all I gave today,” said Monfils afterwards in his press conference. “At the end of the day, it’s been a very long tour for me, playing a lot of matches, spending a lot of hours. Some days are tougher. Today was tougher for me physically and I think I was already very close to my limits”

The pair were meeting for the first time on the ATP circuit, but share a friendly relationship off court having practised together and both speak highly of each other, with Shelton calling the Frenchman’s shot-making capability one of the best on tour, and his athletic highlights reel as “one of the greatest mixed tapes of all time in any sport.”  Monfils had no hesitation to pass the compliments back:

“I love Ben. I love him. You know, this kid is amazing. He’s full of energy. He’s a great guy, great kid. Of course, it’s always too bad to play someone that you love. That’s why I still want to make it tough for him, but at the end, now I’m rooting for him. He’s a guy that I really appreciate, spend time with him, talking with him, sharing anything. We laugh. He’s just an amazing kid.”

Monfils was watched on by partner Elina Svitolina, who is also enjoying a fabulous tournament and plays Madison Keys in the Ladies quarter finals. When asked if it was hard to watch someone you love play tennis, he replied:

It’s more stressful. It’s more stressful because you’re not in control, you want to help, and you can just help with talking, but it’s different because when you play yourself, you really want to help sometimes, legs or strategy and you want to help them to relax. It’s stressful, but also you try also to not show it too much and give as much as you can.”

Given his wealth of experience having spent over two decades on tour and close to 200 Grand Slam matches, he gave an insightful answer when asked whether it was tougher to win a best-of-three every day or a best-of-five every two days.

“What is tough for me is to win the matches. When you win, win, win, oh, to lose is not easy. I had a great week in Auckland. Then I won Auckland, and you saw it. I was running to take the flight. The next morning, I was in practice already. Then practice again. I played almost four hours match against Giovanni [Mpetshi Perricard]. Then I started to feel a little bit the body shaky. And then boom, every day, every day. That’s tough. That’s a good momentum, good feeling, but I need to adapt myself. I need to work different. I need to understand now I can play differently, so I need to change some adjustment for five-setters. So yes, of course, three sets every day.”

Monfils also spoke about general strategy and how he compiles mental notes of each player to the constantly evolving tennis database running through players’ minds, and the comparisons from facing a new opponent to a well-known rival such as Novak Djokovic whom he yet to beat in twenty match ups.

The thing is we practice with most of the players, so you have a feeling [of them]. It’s not like I don’t know Ben. So, I’ve been playing with him. Matches are always different, but you have feel where they will try to impose you in the nervous moments, where he will go, and of course, you add it to your book. You just take note, add it to the book. So, my book will be at a new page with Ben Shelton.

Of course, with Novak, it is completely different, I am still adding [notes].  ‘Okay, today I was close, that…’ But, to be honest, he is the only one that I didn’t yet find the solution. I always say, ‘this is good, it’s good question’, when I play Novak, I want to beat him, and I have strong belief that I can beat him. I’m not just saying this. I really have strong belief that I can beat him. I feel like if I’m solid, if I’m really respecting the game plan, I can beat him.

But somehow his game does not really suit me at that moment maybe. I have to change. I feel like my game suit him great. I feel like I serving good, but he’s still there returning. I have less percentage against him. Not because I’m serving bad. Because he’s reading good. I have less winners, maybe more mistakes. It’s because he’s reading my game good. But I am still eager to beat him, and he knows!”

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