exhausted, Gaël Monfils gives up against Ben Shelton

Tired after more than three hours of effort in the furnace of Melbourne, Gaël Monfils preferred to throw in the towel. Monday, the Frenchman, 41^e world at 38, gave up at the very beginning of the fourth set of his round of 16 at the Australian Open against the American Ben Shelton (20^e) who led 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/2), 1-0.

There are no more French people in the running

While the first three sets ended in a tie-break in heat above 30 degrees, the veteran tricolor headed towards the net smiling at 1-0 for Shelton, telling him that he was stopping the fight at after almost three hours of battle and eight victories in a row. In the previous round, Gaël Monfils eliminated world number 4, Taylor Fritz.

In Oceania, where he successively played tournaments in Brisbane, Auckland and the Australian Open, “my tour was very long,” Monfils underlined at a press conference, pleading exhaustion. “And of course, some days are harder. Today was really difficult for me physically. I was already very close to the limit and unfortunately I crossed it,” he added.

As he left the court, the Frenchman stopped for a moment to give a thumbs-up and greet the public, who cheered him with cries of “Thank you Gaël!” Thanks Gael! “.

Thanks to his victory, Shelton qualified for the quarter-finals of the Australian Open for the second time, two years after having already achieved this performance for his first participation. He will face the Italian Lorenzo Sonego (55^e), which ended another epic on Monday, that of the young American talent Learner Tien (121^e), heartthrob at 19 years old from 5^e world champion Daniil Medvedev have 2^e tour.