Monfils vs. Kendrick or France vs. the USA

I chose to watch and report on this match rather than Dent Falla because Dent routined Falla in straight sets and I saw the last two sets of the former match. It felt like a Davis Cup match a bit, fans next to me on Court 11, the show court near the Stadium, where the stands were packed in the bleachers and there was five-deep lines on the other end, were chanting, “USA, USA,” for Kendrick. And there was one foghorn French guy with his two young kids, shouting continuing something in French.

I sat down with Monfils up two sets to one and Kendrick looking like he was going to go down in four sets. Afterall, Kendrick had to qualify and is ranked #148 while Monfils is #19.

Monfils has the upper-body of a basketball player, in his sleeveless, Juan Monaco-tight shirt his biceps and shoulder muscles make him look like Wilt Chamberlain, he was also wearing a Wilt afro (none of the curlicue afro he usually sports) and goatee. He wore bandages under both knees with cho-pat strips on top of the bandages and he wore black-checkered shorts. Monfils was already reeling from the heat in the fourth set, walking back to the shady back fence and bending over at the waist while waiting to return serve. But he is a player of much greater speed and subtlety than Kendrick. In this match, every drop shot exchange went Monfils way. He had two beautiful sequences where Kendrick hit a softly chopped forehand dropper, and Monfils slid up to the ball (on hard courts, yes, and now you know probably why this guy has knee problems, he does more sliding than Djokovic and Clijsters put together), and deftly dropped his own dropper down-the-line, far out of Kendrick’s reach. As soon as he’d hit the dropper, Monfils’ sneakers would come to a sudden, balanced stop.

But Kendrick held tough. He’s a big American from Fresno, if you’ve ever been to Fresno in the summer you know why Kendrick was not as heat-stroke as Monfils yesterday, who likes to camp out in the middle of the baseline and east-west his opponent with a dangerous, heavy-topped forehand. This is a guy who was, after all, up two sets to love against Nadal in the 2008 Big W.

At 2-3 Monfils serving, Kendrick had a chance to go up love-40, but hit a sharply-angled fh cross into the net. Monfils, despite double-faulting twice in that game, held on. The Frenchman at 6-4, is a beguiling presence on the court. Fans like him. He seems nice. During one close, at-net, drop-shot exchange, finished by Monfils rifling a shot at Kendrick for a winner. Monfils put up his hand and gestured nicely to Kendrick about being sorry for rifling him.
The American, who reminds me of John Wayne (he foot-faulted three times while I was watching, and I thought at one point he was going to walk up to the linesman and say, “God damnit, don’t get on my nerves or I’ll lay you low,” but instead he just asked in an exasperated voice, “Left foot?” but the linesman didn’t respond back. I guess they’re not supposed to talk to the players).

Being a side court, there was no Hawk-Eye involved and I liked that. At one point, the umpire called out, “Correction, ball was good.” It was a break point for Monfils, but he didn’t argue much, and I liked not having to wait to see if the ump was right or not. The game is played by humans, let humans make the calls.

After Kendrick held to make it 5-4, he put his hand to his ear as he walked to his chair, as if to say to the fans, “Let me hear you now!” and did an upwards fist pump and yelled, “Let’s go.” It was a nice gesture, almost as if Kendrick was enlisting the fans to help him beat the Frenchman. The fourth set went to a breaker, and I was sure Monfils was going to close him out. That’s what players No. 19 do to players No. 148, but Kendrick after losing the first two points, won a point on a Monfils backhand error, his first since I started watching. And the dynamic changed. Monfils bh is a shot of beauty, he never seems to miss it, and he can slice, do a leaping two-hander and drop it with great disguise. But his fh is mediocre at best, he can’t generate big fh returns like I saw his compatriot, Paul-Henri Mathiu do in a later match against Hewitt, and in rallies, he often flies his fh long when he’s put on the run.

Kendrick went up 6-3 in the breaker, but Monfils closed to 5-6, and Kendrick closed it out with another big fh that Monfils hit long. The wear of the match and the sun seemed to be getting the better of Monfils. Sweat glistened on his beautiful black skin, he skowled and walked hang-dog back to his chair. Kendrick whooped, pumped his fist and the fans chanted, “USA, USA!”

There are 14 Frenchman in the main draw of the Open without Tsonga and 15 Americans, the two most populous country contingents. Of course, the U.S number would be closer to 10 without all their wild card entrants. I didn’t think Kendrick who is a big guy–did I mention that?–who wears his white hat backwards and likes to mimic just how he missed a shot by repeating the motion and gesticulate to the other side of the court where he should have hit a ball after an error. He smirks a lot and seems to be saying with his body language as he plays, “There’s no way I should lose to this guy.” (In fact, after the match, in his presser which four reporters apparently attended, none of them named me, though, Kendrick said, “If I had served better I would’ve won.” Which is what a lot of players think after losing a match, if only I had done that one thing better I would’ve won, but that’s usually not the case, good players usually win and lesser players don’t and that’s the fact).

And, when “Kendo,” as one fan kept calling him, went up a break on Monfils (at love-40 in the third game of the fifth set, Monfils slammed his second serve into the bottom of the net for another double-fault) and 2-1, 40-love, it looked like the Frenchman was ready to check out. Kendo was so confident, when he was called for a foot fault again, he said to the linesman, “Left foot, toe?” The linesman said nothing.

But, again, the rankings don’t lie. And Monfils showed life. And his dropper started carving up Kendo who tired and tried dropping Monfils back, to no avail. At a big point in the fifth set, Monfils appeared to touch a long forehand by Kendo before it hit the court, Kendo argued, but again, to no avail. Monfils started to have some fun as Kendo imploded. He led the fans in a “USA, USA” chant and winked at a gorgeous girl who was wearing a men’s fedora hat (why do pretty girls look so smashing in men’s hats?) and closed out Kendo, as #19 players do to #148 almost all the time.

but the best match of the tourney might have come on first day on Ct. 11 · Great · see-saw match. Let's see

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