The cry of Gael Monfils after a new defeat
His first-round match against Emil Ruusuvuori lasted more than three and a half hours. Only he knows how much he suffered during that time on the courts of the Australian Open. The result became almost an anecdote if you consider the reaction he had after accumulating another defeat in a row. Gael Monfils He is living with a bad sporting moment and his crying before the journalists shook the world.
Sitting in the press booth, the French tennis player who ranks 11th in the ATP rankings broke down: “I’m trying to find confidence. It’s hard. The important thing is to find that little trick that will make you win. Yes, I want to win. I’m trying to rebuild myself so I can win. I train, I try to grow, but it is difficult without confidence. They will say that I lost again, but for me it is the first defeat of the year. Every time he got here (in front of the media), I feel judged. I’m already on the ground, I ask for a little mercy”.
Minutes before opening his heart and asking not to be punished for his results, he had fallen to the Finn Ruusuvuori for 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, 3-6 and 6-3. The boy from 21 years ranks 86th in the world and became the seventh loss in a row from Monfils since February last year. Before that, a pandemic halted his winning streak: he had started 2020 with two titles and a semi-final.
Precisely in that ATP 500 in Dubai during the last week of February he achieved his latest success: he beat his compatriot Richard Gasquet in the quarterfinals. Then he beat it Novak Djokovic in the semifinals and the world was paralyzed. In September, with the restart of activity, the 32-year-old French tennis player began his negative streak: Dominik Koepfer (Masters 1000 Roma), Yannick Hanfmann (ATP 500 Hamburg), Alexander Bublik (Roland Garros), Pablo Carreno Busta (ATP 500 Vienna) y Matteo Berrettini (ATP Cup) were the ones who surpassed him until the Australian Grand Slam.
Gael’s last victory was in February 2020 (Photo: Reuters)
“I play badly, I can’t serve, I can’t do a forehand, I make mistakes. I am honest in telling you that I am not confident. I don’t feel good, it shows. I don’t need to say more, that shows that I believe. I don’t feel good because I can’t do what I want. I have no confidence. That’s what makes me feel bad. It’s visible, it’s frustrating. I fight, I try to prove things but I can’t do it at all, ”he told reporters.
The man who became six on the planet and won 10 titles in his professional career, today ranks 11th thanks to the fact that the ranking was slowed by the pandemic. That allowed him to come to Australia as one of the best seeded. However, he cannot find his game. Before the journalists, he acknowledged not knowing if the drop was due to the confinement and explained: “What I see is that I started the season without much confidence. I quickly felt in training that it was difficult. I can’t play well. I’m just not okay. I keep training, I keep believing and I hope to win one game, then two, then confidence will return. But here it is complicated. I’d like to go out. I ask for a little mercy”.
“I’d like to get up and tell you that this nightmare is over, but here I am … for how long?”he reflected.
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Monfils adds 10 titles as a professional tennis player (Photo: Reuters)
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