The press conference is coming to an end … and Gaël Monfils, 34, bursts into tears. In total lack of benchmarks and especially of confidence, the new protégé of Austrian coach Günter Bresnik, No. 11 at ATP, waltzed in the first round of the Australian Open against the Finnish Ruusuvuori (3-6, 6 -4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3), ranked 75 ranks lower in the planetary hierarchy and barely competing for his 3rd Grand Slam.
“I don’t have confidence. I ask for clemency “
“I play badly, I can not serve, I can no longer make a forehand, I make mistakes, breath, devastated and powerless, the No. 1 tricolor. I am six meters behind, I put tarpaulins. No trust. I am honest to tell you that I have no confidence. I don’t feel good, it shows. I don’t need to say more, you can feel it I think… ”
In the first two months of 2020, Monfils was almost walking on water. For a year, and seven consecutive defeats, he no longer takes his head out of the bucket. “I train, I try to believe in what I do in training. But it’s hard. You will say that I lost again, but for me it is the first loss of the year. I try to continue working, to see the moment when it will smile on me a little more. Every time I come here (Editor’s note: at a press conference), I feel judged. I am already on the ground, you shoot me … I ask for a little clemency. Yes I lost a lot, it hurts me because I am trying. The worst part is that I taffe. You can see that I can’t do it. I train like a butcher and it doesn’t work. “
Rarely also reached
Beyond one more setback, Monfils seems lost. A few days ago, during the ATP Cup, he tried to implement more aggressive instructions from his trainer. Even if it means watering the tarpaulins. This time, he preferred to play against them and find the wait-and-see attitude, passive, which he would like to try to get rid of.
The career of the former world n ° 6, winner of 10 tournaments and beaten 21 times in the final, is made of an emotional roller coaster. But rarely had Monfils been so affected. “I would like to get up and tell you that this nightmare is over, he slips, but here I am in …” For how long?
Moutet at the top, Pair flops and Müller’s beautiful story
Second Frenchman in the world ranking, Benoît Paire did no better than Monfils. The Avignon (28th), who was one of 72 players forced to undergo strict isolation for fourteen days, quickly fell by the wayside against the Belarusian Gerasimov (6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (6), 7-5).
But all is not gray for the Blues. Corentin Moutet (80th) had a superb performance by defeating local John Millman (38th) (6-4, 6-7 (4), 3-6, 6-2, 6-3), Adrian Mannarino (32nd ) easily defeated the Austrian Novak (100th) (6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (2) and Ugo Humbert dismissed the Japanese Uchiyama (6-3, 6-4, 6-7 ( 3), 6-3).
Finally, the beautiful story of the day is signed by Alexandre Müller. Beaten in the last round of qualifying, the native of Poissy had still decided to make the trip – and two weeks locked up in a room – to Australia, hoping to be drafted at the option of the packages. Integrated in extremis in the big picture, he offered himself the Argentinian Londero (4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-3) …
Article original de: www.leparisien.fr
