Gaël Monfils’ epic ends with a smile, despite abandonment. This is the beautiful image of this Monday. The 38-year-old French veteran ended up throwing in the towel in the 4th set of an epic round of 16 against American Ben Shelton (20th in the world) at the Australian Open. While the first three sets ended in a tie-break in heat above 30 degrees, Monfils (41st) headed towards the net smiling at 1-0 for Shelton, telling him that he was stopping the fight after almost three hours of battle and eight victories in a row, including his title in Auckland. The 22-year-old American, to whom the Parisian gave a warm hug, then led 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/2), 1-0.
In Oceania, where he successively played tournaments in Brisbane, Auckland and the Australian Open, “my tour was very long”underlined Monfils at a press conference. “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.
“I was roasted…”
Winner of the Auckland tournament in early January, a title which made him the oldest tournament winner on the main circuit since 1977, Monfils hoped to reach the quarter-finals for the third time in his career at the Australian Open. , after 2016 and 2022. As he left the court, he stopped for a moment to give a thumbs-up and wave to the audience, who cheered him on with cries of “Thank you Gaël! Thank you Gaël!”
With the elimination of Monfils, the last French representative at the Australian Open, men and women alike, disappears. On Sunday, French No.1 Ugo Humbert (14th) was also eliminated in the round of 16, by German Alexander Zverev (2nd) who won in four sets.
-After two tight first sets, without any break and where each won a decisive game, Monfils was the first to take his opponent’s service at the start of the third set. But Shelton broke in the next game before the Frenchman declined physically to the point of throwing in the towel shortly after losing the third set. After his break, Monfils felt that he 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 with the experience. Obviously, I didn’t succeed to do that. In fact, she wants to, but (…) at some point, I’m not 20 anymore, really.”detailed the Parisian.
Ben Shelton pays tribute to “a legend of (his) sport”
“It was tough, he played at a very high level. In fact, when he started to get tired, he started to play better”said Ben Shelton. “It’s one of those dangerous moments where you don’t know if he’s doing well, if he’s not doing well, if he’s trying, but he’s hitting a lot of winning shots.”added the American, paying tribute to “a legend of (his) sport”. “The little boy inside me always wants to see Gaël win, winning impressive points with +trick shots+”he even said.
After the double feat of the 3rd round, when Monfils and his wife Elina Svitolina (27th) both eliminated the world number 4 within a few hours of each other, the Ukrainian is this time the only one to advance to the next round. She won earlier in the day against the Russian Veronika Kudermetova (75th) and will face the American Madison Keys (14th) in the quarter-finals.
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