Rolex Paris Masters – Gaël Monfils, the show or the cold?

Released in the second round of the Vienna tournament by Diego Schwartzman last week, Monfils nevertheless arrives inflated with confidence at the Rolex Paris Masters, at the end of a 2021 season where he has greatly raised his head, after the end of the year 2020. catastrophic where he had very badly experienced the cut linked to the Covid-19 epidemic. “We don’t talk about confidence anymore, I think I’m playing very, very well”, he also recalled before making his entry in the running in “his” tournament, he who was born in Paris and who gleaned, on this indoor court, his best performances in Masters 1000.

Finalist of the 2009 and 2010 editions (he did as well in Monte Carlo in 2016), the companion of Elina Svitolina, who has played only one of the last 5 editions (loss in quarter past against Shapovalov) arrives on familiar ground, all the same with a fair amount of enthusiasm. Especially since the atmosphere should be, this year, particularly at the rendezvous: “It’s nice to know that there will be an audience, he rejoiced. Obviously, after a really hard year, finding the public and then incredible atmospheres from the American tour is good. I am very happy to be able to come back here “.

Showman at heart, the 35-year-old thus intends to rely on the support of his compatriots in the stands to return, at least, to the round of 16, a performance he has not achieved at Bercy since… 2014, when he had already come up against Novak Djokovic. In recent months, he has regained a certain consistency, his joie de vivre, his bite on the courts. Finalist in the Sofia tournament a few weeks ago, eliminated by the scarecrow Alexander Zverev in Indian Wells, Monfils has shown that he has emerged from a long black hole in which the Covid-19 epidemic and life under bubble the had dived, even though he has only beaten one top 30 player this season (De Minaur to Cincinnati).

A first round easy in appearance but …

The question will above all be to know to what extent his game, based on explosiveness, will suffer from his state of form. The first round against the Serbian, 69th in the ATP standings, can be tricky, the two players having never crossed swords so far. But Kecmanovic’s disappointing results this season should allow the Frenchman to express himself at best. In any case, he made a promise that will please the public in the capital: “We are in Paris, we are trying to forget all that and go all out”.