TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – Fabio Fognini and Gael Monfils had only met five times prior to their 3rd round encounter at the French Open and already the rivalry between the two is notorious. It seems that whenever these two meet, the stars, the moon and the earth all aligns for this perfect synergy of madness, mischief, mayhem and mockery of the sport of tennis. This 6th meeting was no difference as Monfils came through in 5 sets 5-7 6-2 6-4 0-6 6-2. Cordell Hackshaw
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the Roland Garros
Italian Fabio Fognini (14) and Gael Monfils (23) of France had only met five times prior to their 3rd round encounter at the French Open and already the rivalry between the two is notorious. Its noteworthiness unfortunately is based on matters not specifically related to actual tennis play. Fognini leads the head to head 3-2. These two playing each other is nothing remarkable in light of the major rivalries at the top of the sport. Both players are struggling to live up to the huge promise that followed them from the junior tour particularly Monfils. However, it seems that whenever these two meet, the stars, the moon and the earth all aligns for this perfect synergy of madness, mischief, mayhem and mockery of the sport of tennis. This 6th meeting was no difference as Monfils came through in 5 sets 5-7 6-2 6-4 0-6 6-2. Much would be said about this match but for certain it would not be for the quality and/or the outstanding play from either player.
For the first 3 games of the match, neither player held serve. Then Fognini consolidated the break to go up 3-1. Monfils then held serve and broke his opponent to get back on serve 3-3. This became the pattern of play for the set as both player broke and held serve only to be broken thereafter. Monfils denied Fognini early set points at 5-3 to prolong to the set. It was not until the 12th game when Fognini having broken Monfils for the 4th time in the set, held serve to take it 7-5. The overall pattern of play in the match was bizarre. Monfils, a physically more imposing specimen than Fognini, was the one being pushed behind the baseline and Fognini the one dominating in the forecourt. Monfils made very little attempt to construct points on court. He simply hit the ball back to wherever Fognini was standing and hoped the Italian would be the one to make the error.
The 2nd set saw both players on serve until the 6th game when Monfils went on a 4 game winning stretch taking 15 of the next 20 points. Fognini appeared to have lost interest in the match and lost it 2-6. It was not so much so he was making unforced errors as oppose to simply making “on purpose” errors. He had 18 errors in that set alone compared to 6 from Monfils who simply had to keep the ball in play to win points. The 3rd set was of a slightly better quality as each player was initially broken in his opening service game but then then held serve for 4-4. Fognini had 2 break points to serve for the set 5-4 but Monfils muscled through and was the one up 5-4. Again Fognini simply showed little interest in the set at the tail end stage of it as he almost wilfully gifted the 10th game and the 3rd set to Monfils 6-4.
Not to be outdone by this lack of sportsmanship, Monfils decided to give the 4th set to Fognini. Monfils put forth the minimum necessary to appear to just be trying as he dropped the set 0-6. He won 6 of the 30 points played in the set. He would later say quite unabashedly after the match that dropping the set at love was the only way he thought he could ensure that he would serve first in the decisive 5th set. This tactic proved to be “wise” as the Frenchman saved two break points in the opening game to then break Fognini at love and raced to a 3-0 lead. This was not before Fognini is given a point penalty for throwing his racquet that almost hit a ball boy. Fognini got back on serve at 2-3 but was again broken to go down 2-4. Like in the 2nd and 3rd set, Fognini simply could not have cared less about the set and he was broken at love with four wilful forehand “errors” to hand Monfils the match 5-7 6-2 6-4 0-6 6-2. Nonetheless Fognini would say later of the match, “I play great. I play epic match there, and I feel great. I feel great…You know, I’m happy about my tennis. I’m not happy, of course, because I lost, but this is the sport.” His statements are rather difficult to comprehend considering everything within that match and the fact that he had 43 winners in the match to 81 errors.
What added an even more unfortunate element to this match beyond the fact that the players were calling out the trainers for no physical reason other than to upset the momentum shifts, was the fact that the crowd was very much a factor in this match. The French crowd obviously supporting their countryman showed Fognini no respect at all. After winning the opening set, the crowd barely registered all applause for his effort, which was unfortunate because Fognini was then, playing the better brand of tennis. Then things got progressively worst. Fognini was screaming at them and they were booing him and finally in the end, Fognini upon losing the match gave the crowd a middle finger salute. Not once they did get on either player for what was clearly “tanking” during the match. Chair Umpire, Carlos Bernades also failed to address this matter.
Also a weird security issue arose as a young fan came onto the court at the end of the match and was attempting to get Monfils’ attention. Monfils mostly ignored him and so did the security personnel. All this seemed difficult to do as the boy was within touching distance of Monfils. This level of nonsense hardly seems befitting a tournament of this caliber. One can only hope that the ITF noted these blaring issues that came to light during this match. These sorts of antics really turn away true fans from this wonderful sport.
