Absent from the Monte-Carlo Masters 1000 since 2016, Gaël Monfils won this Tuesday for his return to Monegasque clay.
Winning return for Gaël Monfils. The Frenchman, who had not played in Monte-Carlo since his lost final in 2016, won on Tuesday in the first round against the Australian Aleksandar Vukic, 65th in the world (6-7, 6-3, 7-5 ). He will face Russian Daniil Medvedev (4th) on Wednesday for a place in the round of 16.
The 37-year-old Frenchman, 40th in the ATP and beneficiary of an invitation, should have faced the Australian Jordan Thompson (32nd). But a few minutes before the start of the match, the latter withdrew due to a back injury and was replaced by his compatriot Vukic, drafted from qualifying.
A nice scare
Monfils and Vukic reached the tie break in the first set after exchanging faceoffs in the middle of the set. After a long standoff, the Australian pocketed the set. In the second, the Frenchman began to show signs of fatigue, even injury, but nevertheless managed to return to a set everywhere on his third set point.
In the process, he started the decisive round badly by immediately conceding his throw-in to be down 2-0, then a second time to be down 4-1. But he won the next four games to lead 5-4, then 6-5. And on his opponent’s final service game, Monfils concluded with two winning shots, the 46th and 47th of the match (for 48 unforced errors)!
He was left with a final lost in 2016 against Rafael Nadal.
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2024-04-09 20:23:00
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