Forced to retire this Monday after three sets completed in the tie-break in the round of 16 of the Australian Open, Gaël Monfils (41st in the world) said after his elimination against Ben Shelton (20th) that he “gave everything”, or even “even too much given”.
Question: What made you give up at the start of the fourth set?
Answer: “At one point, in the third set (after breaking Shelton, Editor’s note)I felt that I had crossed a physical limit, I was roasted. I sat down, I told myself that if I managed to play this service game, hold this break, behind, I (was) going to have to play the experience. Obviously, I didn’t manage to do that. In fact, the head wants it, but (…) at one point, I’m no longer 20 years old, that is. A moment ago, wow! Too physical for me to continue following him like that. So, I started playing differently. But in Grand Slam, it’s super hard. And afterward, Ben still remains 20th in the world, so it’s too hard (…) So, behind, it was very long. (But) I came out super happy.”
Q: So your opponent made you physically break down?
-A: “I gave everything. Frankly, I gave everything. I couldn’t give more. I even gave too much. I was flat. Well, he’s someone I really appreciate If we are in this state, it’s because the other made the match really hard and he managed to more than exhaust me. So, big congratulations to him. I think that the public, they also saw that It was a good match and I think they saw that I had been at the end of my rope for a long time.”
Q: How much has your eight-game winning streak taken a toll physically?
A: “Already, I was a little more tired today (Monday, Editor’s note). I felt that today was a little harder. It was very heavy, so I said to myself I hope we will both serve well, that there won’t be too many rallies and that it will be okay. In fact, we served well, but there were still exchanges. Already, I told myself the plan, it is not starting well. Gradually, I find it long and above all I find that he played well tactically. He played me some good ‘gilettes’ quite high, you see, he played well, he served well. I still had to use up a lot of resources to return it. I also put a lot of effort on my legs to try to return as much as possible. So, gradually, his game wore me down.”
