He achieved one of the greatest feats of the tournament. Emerged victorious from an intense battle against world number four Taylor Fritz this Saturday in the 3rd round of the Australian Open (3-6, 7-5, 7-6 [1]6-4, in 3h08), Gaël Monfils validated his ticket for the second week in Melbourne. A major performance for the 38-year-old Frenchman, author of an XXL start to the season, which has already seen him win his thirteenth career title in Auckland last week.
French player at the start of the season, the Parisian hopes to continue his great Australian adventure. To do this, we will have to win a match that smells of sulfur against Ben Shelton, Monday in the round of 16. One thing is certain, the feat of “the Monf” has already allowed him to dust off certain statistics buried very far in his personal history, but also in that of tennis.
1
World number one! Thanks to his victory against Taylor Fritz, Gaël Monfils ranks this Saturday at the top of the ATP “Race” ranking, which only takes into account the points gleaned from the current season and makes it possible to determine the eight participants in the Masters at the end of the season. ‘year. Anecdotal, certainly, as we know that it won’t last, but symptomatic of his current state of form.
2
Like the number of players who reached the round of 16 at the Australian Open at over 38 years old, the current age of Monfils, since 1988 and the introduction of the 128-player draws. The French showman is only surpassed by Roger Federer. In January 2020, the Maestro made his way to the semi-finals in Melbourne, while his identity card showed 38 years and 5 months, compared to 4 months for the veteran tricolor.
4
At 38 years old, Monfils quite simply offered himself the best Grand Slam victory of his career, in terms of ranking, against world number four Taylor Fritz this Saturday.
-10
Like the number of years without a victory for “the Monf” against a member of the top 10 in a Grand Slam. Before sending Fritz to the mat this Saturday, the former world number six had not beaten a player present in this closed circle since Grigor Dimitrov (8th), at the US Open in 2014 (7-5, 7-6 , 7-5, in the round of 16).
8
Titled in Auckland last week, where he won five matches, the darling of the French public followed up with three new victories in Melbourne, bringing his total to 8 consecutive successes. To match his best series (12 victories between Montpellier, Rotterdam and Dubai, in February 2020), he will have to… win the Australian Open.
17
Now credited with 8 victories against players in the top 10 in Grand Slams, Gaël Monfils had only beaten one of the five best players in the world once in a major tournament during his entire career before this Saturday: it was at Roland-Garros against David Ferrer (5th in the world) in 2008,… almost 17 years ago. The Parisian also became the first French player to beat a top 5 Grand Slam since Lucas Pouille at the 2016 US Open, against Rafael Nadal.
51
We have to go back to 1974, 51 years ago, to find traces of a victory by a player over 38 years and 3 months against a top 4 player in a Grand Slam tournament. Before Monfils, the last one to achieve this performance was Ken Rosewall, also at the Australian Open.
