ATP Indian Wells – The only Frenchman in the 8th round, Gaël Monfils remains the blue reference: “He has something that others don’t have”

He’s still holding up, and even better. At 37, Gaël Monfils could aspire to a well-deserved sporting retirement, like his colleagues Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gilles Simon. His life no longer revolves solely or mainly around tennis since he is the happy father of a little girl. But as close as the prospect of the end of his career is, he is still having fun on the circuit and remains more than efficient. At Indian Wells, he is even the only Blue to find himself in the round of 16 where Casper Ruud awaits him, thanks to his striking victories over Hubert Hurkacz and Cameron Norrie. Undoubtedly, it still has something special.

However, in the ATP rankings, he is currently only French number 4 (54th in the world) behind Ugo Humbert (14th), Adrian Mannarino (21st) and Arthur Fils (43rd) – but 3rd in the Race at the Olympic Games (ranking since the after Roland-Garros 2023) – and his start to the 2024 season objectively left something to be desired until mid-February. Yes, but when Monfils manages to build up a little confidence and move on, he takes on a dimension that none of his compatriots have yet touched. What if in the end, he was still the best of them?

A level only reached by Humbert

“It’s hard to answer. When Ugo Humbert has just done what he did in Dubai in particular, to say that in terms of pure playing quality, Gaël is the best… There, we are really in the moment compared to the two very good victories that he has just achieved in style, adds Arnaud Clément, consultant for Eurosport. Ugo has still regularly beaten the Top 10, won all his finals. But when we see what Gaël is capable of doing at 37, the way he continues… So, Indian Wells suits him well with these days of rest, but it really impresses me to see the quality of concentration that he was able to maintain during almost the entire game against Norrie . It’s not easy when you play a lot less than before. He found something more in this sector.”

In survivor mode for more than 3 hours: how Monfils transcended himself against Norrie

Although his forties are no longer so far away, Monfils is compensating for what he has lost a little physically by progressing elsewhere. If it remains faithful to its identity as a spectacular game, it pushes the line a little less and is no longer scattered. There was indeed this spoon serve in the tie-break of the second set against Norrie, but it was not a shot played to impress the gallery: he had an assumed tactical objective which he achieved. Once successful, he did not try it again to remain structured while maintaining an element of unpredictability.

Last summer, when he had not yet returned to the Top 200, he surprised everyone by producing a quality of tennis that few still considered him capable of in Toronto and Cincinnati, winning among others against Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alex de Minaur and already Norrie. Occasionally, he thus proved that he could still evolve at a Top 10 level. Over time, this is still a question. But when he manages to continue as at the moment, Monfils reminds us that he is an athletic exception, and even more so in French tennis.

He’s not quite the same as Djokovic and Nadal, but he’s out of the ordinary physically

“He has something that others don’t have and it always works. Physically, it’s not quite the same as Djokovic and Nadal – until recently for the Spaniard -, but it’s monstrous. The strength and power that he is capable of releasing on shots while he is three meters behind his line, it’s pure, raw strength. He is extraordinary,” underlines Arnaud Clement.

Monfils earns a top 10: the summary of his victory against Hurkacz

And our consultant insists on the work capacity of a player regularly singled out for his dilettantism. “When you see him at this level, you know he trains hard. I say it because it’s not necessarily something that comes out of him. We never talk about that side: it’s is a hard worker. He is perhaps not the one who has been the most consistent from this point of view in his career, but I saw him up close when I was Davis Cup captain: what he is able to do in training in terms of intensity and length, it was phenomenal. I’ve never seen that.”

And this is perhaps also what explains why Monfils remains to this day the last French quarter-finalist in a Grand Slam for men (Australian Open 2022) in such a physically demanding long format. Add to this this natural charisma, this magnetism which still makes him the idol of the crowds and the energy he knows how to draw from it and you understand that he retains this special status, of the one from whom we always expect mountains and wonders. .

“It’s quite rare to see Gaël announce objectives a little in advance,” observes Arnaud Clément. “He can beat Hurkacz or Norrie in terms of style of play? No. And that might be the greatest thing.”