It has not been a season to celebrate for the flamboyant Frenchman Gael Monfils. The 34 year old winner of ten ATP singles titles and the former world no. 6 has floundered badly in 2021.
This week in Majorca, as the top seed after a bye, he lost to a lucky loser by the name of Max Purcell 75 in the third set.
2021 has been a series of stunningly bad losses for the former Grand Slam contender. Last week in Halle he fell first round to Lloyd Harris in straight sets.
La Monf started 2021 with a loss at ATP Cup in Australia to Matteo Berrettini 64 62. At AO he lost a first round heartbreaker to 86th ranked Emil Ruusuvuori 63 46 57 63 36.
He took three months off and played Rome, only to lose again to Lorenzo Sonego 46 75 46.
Monf finally got his first win of the year in Lyon against 122 ranked Thiago Seyboth Wild 75 64 but lost another heartbreaker in the second round to Yoshihito Nishioka 64 36 67.
Then in Belgrade was another heartbreaker loss to world no. 98 Roberto Carballes Baena 16 63 67.
At Roland Garros Monfils suddenly came back to life with a vintage 16 76 64 64 win vs Alberto Ramos Vinolas. But the revival was only shortlived, Monf lost second round to Sweden’s 105 ranked Mikhael Ymer 06 62 46 36.
Then the loss to Harris in Halle and yesterday to Purcell.
For 2021 Monfils is 2-7 and his ranking still stands at a respectable no. 16 but his inability to win matches is a pattern that he will have to change soon along with his two coaches Gunter Bresnik and Richard Ruckelhausen.
Monfils will turn 35 on September 1 at US Open.
Asics · France · Gael Monfils · La Monf
Scoop Malinowski · June 23, 2021 at 10:26 am
I will never forget seeing Monfils play Isner at US Open and the US Open crowd embraced Monfils and cheered for him heavily instead of Isner. Isner ended up winning the match but was clearly disconcerted and hurt by the snub by his home fans. This was in 2013. 75 62 46 76 for Isner. Monfils leads the head to head vs Monf 7-5. Interestingly all 12 of their duels were played on hard courts, indoor or outdoor, they never met on clay or grass.
Rafi · June 25, 2021 at 12:37 am
Sometimes I think that tournaments should include exhibition matches on a regular basis where players like Monfils and may be Bublik one he gets older would do very well attracting a lot of tennis fans who don’t care much about winning and losing a match.For a lot of spectators watching tricks is more fun and enjoyable than a nerve wracking tiebreak and Monfils could extend his career to his seventies just like Bahrami if choses that path.
Scoop Malinowski · June 25, 2021 at 7:32 am
Rafi, I like your idea, and add Rios, Santoro, Karlovic, Hewitt, Safin, Dolgopolov, Kyrgios to your draw. Tennis is going to miss Monfils, there will never be another like him.