Gael Monfils - Gael Monfils. Gael Monfils: biography and tennis career G Monfils
French tennis player Gael Monfils reached the highest position in 2016. He rose to sixth place in the ATP world rankings. In addition, he reached two Grand Slam semi-finals and three ATP finals World Tour Masters 1000 singles. As a junior, the athlete won 83 of 105 games, becoming first in the junior world rankings. However, things could have turned out differently. At school Monfils was considered best athlete. He won the French championships in the 100 meters.
Choosing Tennis
Gaël Sebastien Monfils was born in Paris in 1986. His father Rufin, a former football player, is from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. Sylvette's mother is from Martinique. At school, Gael was considered a prodigy athlete. He won the French 100m championship in the under-13 and under-14 categories. Only his love of tennis prevented him from continuing to compete at a higher level. His coach officially stated that Monfils could make it to the finals at the Olympics, such was his talent.
Gael began training on the court with his father. The change in sport is explained by the fact that the future champion was a big fan. The tennis player is one of the most accomplished juniors of all time. In 2004, he won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments: Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon. In October, he made his ATP debut at the Moselle Open and then qualified for the Paris Masters. The fourth Grand Slam tournament did not come to him. At the US Open, Gael only reached the third round.
Gael Monfils stats
After becoming a professional, the French tennis player rose sharply in the rankings and entered the top 50. In 2005, he received his first ATP title. Gael Monfils won Challenger titles in Besançon and Tunisia and also reached the fourth round at the Miami Open. The next breakthrough was Wimbledon, where the athlete reached the third round. He was nicknamed "La Monf" due to the name Gael Monfils and "Sliderman" due to his unusual sliding technique, especially on clay surfaces.
In their first tournament in 2006 in Doha, Gael reached the final but lost in straight sets. After that, he decided to go to a paddle tennis tournament held in Las Vegas. Monfils was given a wild card for the doubles event, but asked to be included in the singles event. As a result, the tennis player surprised everyone by winning the tournament and beating Scott Friedman, the leader of this type of tennis.
In the same year, at a tournament in Rome, Gael beat Andy Roddick, but lost to Rafael Nadal. At the competition in Hamburg, he could not beat Andy Murray. However, he met him again at the Roland Garros tournament. After a difficult battle, the Frenchman emerged victorious. He also defeated Belgian Dick Norman and American James Blake. The fourth round was Monfils's last as he lost. But this allowed the athlete to rise to 23rd place in the ranking.
Next important stage was the 2008 French Open. There the tennis player reached the semi-finals for the first time. He became the first Frenchman to do this in the last 7 years.
Second Grand Slam semi-final
Over the following years, Gael Monfils reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. However, the athlete was greatly hampered by a knee injury. Because of this, he often lost or even withdrew from competitions, including Wimbledon. Later, he still managed to reach the quarterfinals of the US Open. By 2013, the tennis player returned to the top 40. At the same time, he made a successful deal with the Asics brand. After signing the contract in an interview, Gael said:
“I spend a lot of time studying sneakers. Since I'm a basketball fan, I prefer tall shoes, so I like the GEL-LYTE® MT model. I change colors depending on the season and my mood. Because the ASICS heritage is incorporated into the ASICS Tiger brand, I think the brand is of the highest quality."
Monfils' next breakthrough came in 2016. The tennis player reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, but lost to Milos Raonic in four sets. Determined to achieve better results, Gael headed to the Rotterdam Open, where he reached his first final of the year. In March, he reached the quarterfinals of two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments - Indian Wells and Miami. However, in Madrid the athlete contracted a viral infection. Health problems forced him to withdraw from the French Open.
Having recovered, Gael went to the US Open and reached the semi-finals. He eventually lost a controversial match to Djokovic in four sets. The controversy stemmed from Monfils hitting balls softly, which made it seem like he wasn't giving it his all. As a result, the Frenchman was jeered by the crowd and criticized by John McEnroe. Despite all these problems, the tennis player became number 6 in the world rankings.
In 2018, Gael won his seventh ATP World Tour singles title at the Qatar Open. Most recently, he secured his eighth title at the 2019 Rotterdam Open by defeating Stan Wawrinka in a three-set final.
Gael Monfils is a French musketeer experiencing a second youth. An athlete from the small town of Bobigny, which is located in France, was born on the Day of Knowledge on September 1, 1986, but decided to connect his life not with science, but with professional sports, which is why he ended up in tennis. The player sacredly honors his place of birth, but now he is stationed in Switzerland in the town of Trelex, which is very pleasant for living and training.
The anthropometric data of an athlete distinguishes him from his rivals, since this moment he is one hundred and ninety-three centimeters tall, and the athlete’s weight is eighty-five kilograms, which generally determines the forceful nature of the game, which he tries to impose on his opponents, practically not allowing him to breathe in each individual section of the court, actively going to the net. A right-handed grip also helps him win, but on the left side he prefers to hit with two hands, which gives his strikes a special spin.
During his career, which started back in 2004, the tennis player managed to win more than fifteen million in prize money and reach the maximum sixth place in the tournament, although during all this time he never reached the final of a Grand Slam tournament. The most best results are semi-final appearances in France in 2008 and in the United States in 2016.
Monfils won the Davis Cup twice, in 2010 and 2014, and also became number one in the junior rankings, which happened as a result of winning three Grand Slam junior tournaments. IN doubles Gael did not achieve much success, but in the individual he has already won ten different ATP stages:
- Sopot - 2005;
- - year 2009;
- – 2010;
- - 2011;
- Bordeaux - 2013;
- Montpellier - 2014;
- – 2016;
- – 2018;
- Kaohsiung - 2018;
- – 2019.
As we can see, the athlete’s affairs have recently gone smoothly, which may indicate that very soon he will add even more to his collection of awards.
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Gael Monfils Sebastin(French pronunciation: [ɡaɛl mɔfis]; born 1 September 1986 in Paris, France) is a French professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high ATP World No. 6 singles ranking on November 7, 2016. His career highlights include achieving two Grand Slam semi-final singles at the 2008 French Open and 2016 US Open, and three ATP World Tour Masters 1000 singles finals at the then Paris Masters in and and in 2016 Monte Carlo Masters.
2010: Third ATP title
2011: Fourth ATP title and 200 career wins
He then played in Montpellier, where he was defeated in the second round by Richard Gasquet. He received a wild card in Rotterdam but was defeated in the first round by Juan Martin del Potro. He received a wildcard at the French Open after a good clay season with a win at the Bordeaux Challenger and the final at ATP tournament Nice, he upset Berdych in the first round of the French Open, who was seeded fifth. He continued his quest by defeating Gulbis in the second round. In the third round he faces Tommy Robredo. Monfils won the first 2 sets, but lost the last 3. During the match, Monfils had 4 points in the match, but was unable to win any of them. Monfils reached the final in Winston-Salem, but Austria's Jürgen Melzer ended in the second set due to an unknown injury, sealing the championship for Melzer. Just three days later, on August 27, Monfils defeated 105th-ranked Adrian Unger of Romania in the first round of the US Open, but lost to John Isner in the second round.
Monfils bounced back to win Montpellier, beating Richard Gasquet. He injured his wrist in a match with Dimitrov and did not play again until the French Open, where he made it to Andy Murray in the quarterfinals.
For his debut season on clay at the Monte Carlo Masters, he consistently beat Andrey Kuznetsov, Roger Federer and Grigor Dimitrov, but lost to Tomas Berdych in the semi-finals.
In the end, that same viral infection that Monfils caught in Madrid saw him pull out of the French Open. Then Monfils, who was still feeling ill, would not play again until Wimbledon, where, in an attempt to recover, he lost his first round match with compatriot Chardy in five sets.
Monfils earned his first ever ATP World Tour 500 Series singles title in July, in the 2nd week after Wimbledon, by beating Croatia's Ivo Karlovic in the final in three sets at the hard-court Citi Open in Washington, D.C., after fighting from the set and a punch from Karlovic, serving for the championship in the second set, and moments later, saving the championship point in the tiebreak. The victory was Monfils' first ATP World Tour singles for two years, although he had achieved at least one last year since 2005. All of his previous ATP World Tour singles fell under the ATP World Tour 250 series category, despite that he has reached at least 3 finals each in all categories, with the exception of the previously Grand Slam and Tour Finals.
The following week, Monfils reached the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup after dispatching 2016 Wimbledon singles finalist Raonic in the quarter-finals to set up a tie against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, whom he lost to in straight sets, ending his career-best consecutive win of 9 matches in a row.
In the second week of August, since Richard Gasquet withdrew from the 2016 Olympics tennis tournament due to a back injury, Monfils was paired with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men's doubles draw. In the men's singles draw from the same tournament, Monfils reached the quarterfinals and lost to eventual bronze medalist Nishikori despite 3 match point chances in the deciding set.
In late August, Monfils entered the US Open seeded tenth and reached the semi-finals without dropping the set, defeating prominent past and present tour players Gilles Muller, Ian Satral, Nicholas Almagro, Marcos Baghdatis and Lucas Poill along the way. He eventually lost a controversial match against Djokovic in four sets. The dispute came out because Monfils soft balled many shots and appeared that he was not giving the match his all. As a result, Monfils was booed by the crowd and criticized by John McEnroe claiming that he was "unprofessional".
In the first week of October, Monfils entered and was seeded 2nd at the Japan Open, another ATP World Tour 500 Series, where he reached the semi-finals without dropping the set, after again beating Ivo Karlovic in the quarter-finals to set up a tie against the future champion Kyrgios, whom he lost in 2 very competitive and entertaining sets. Monfils then entered the Shanghai Masters as the 6th seed and received a bye to the second round, where he defeated Kevin Anderson in straight sets. In the third round he faced Goffin, and despite winning the first set and leading by a double lead in the second set, serving 4–1, he lost the next 5 games and was forced to play the decider, where he lost 2–6. However The run guaranteed him to match his career high ranking of No. 7 times.
The following week Monfils entered the Stockholm Open, where he was seeded 1st. After receiving the first round date, he was upset by Gastão Elias in straight sets. The loss results in his ranking falling down one position, back to No. 8.
Despite missing the penultimate week of the 2016 season, Monfils became the sixth man to qualify for the 2016 ATP World Tour Finals. This year marked its debut in the season-end of the event. After falling to Raonic 6-3, 6-4 and losing a 3-set match with Dominic Thiem, Monfils withdrew from the tournament with an injury. Goffin was brought in to replace Monfils for one match.
2017: 400 career singles wins
Throughout 2017, Monfils managed to advance beyond the round of 16 singles in the main draw in just three ATP World Tour tournaments - Marseille (lost in the quarter-finals to Richard Gasquet), Dubai (lost in the quarter-finals to Fernando Verdasco) and Eastbourne (lost in the final to Novak Djokovic) . In their second round match against no. 5 seed Nishikorite at the Rogers Cup, Monfils saved four match points in the deciding set tiebreaker to advance to the third round; he did not lose his third match of the tour against no. 12 seeds Bautista Agut in three tight sets, losing the last two in a tiebreaker. His victory over Nishikori at the Rogers Cup was the first time in seven years that a village team had come from Monfils to defeat a Top 10 opponent, and it was only the third time in his career (3-62) that he did so. Monfils saw his year-end ATP singles ranking position slip into world No. 46 as he struggled with his fitness in 2017. He was forced to withdraw from six tournaments due to various diseases, and ended his season after losing in third round singles at the 2017 US Open, citing a right knee injury.
2018: 7 ATF name
Monfils won his seventh ATP World Tour singles title at the 2018 Qatar Open. He lost his previous three Qatar Opens in singles finals. Appearing in the 2018 edition of the tournament as a no-seeded template, he advanced to the final via a cutter after top seed Dominic Thiya had to withdraw from his match in the semi-finals due to illness. In the final he defeated Andrey Rublev with a score of 6-2, 6-3 in 61 minutes. In his next tournament, the 2018 Australian Open, Monfils lost no. 14 seed Novak Djokovic in four sets in the 2nd round. Monfils then made the semi-finals of the 2018 Argentina Open, upsetting seventh seed Cuevas in the first round before handily defeating Dominic Thiem in the semi-finals. Continuing his South American swing, Monfils played two stunning matches during the 2018 Rio Open. In the first round, Monfils completed a significant comeback to beat Ceballos, keeping one point in the process with a booming right hand. In the round, the Frenchman pulled off even more stunner by defeating top seed and world number 3 Marin Cilic in a match that stretched over two days due to inclement weather. The match was stopped 6-3, 6-6 (7-7) in favor of Monfils, a stoppage that surprised many. Monfils lost his quarterfinal match against Diego Schwartzman in straight sets.
2019: 8 ATF name
Monfils won the eighth ATP singles title of his career at the 2019 Rotterdam Open, defeating Wawrinka in a three-set final.
Game in style
Monfils is generally described as a baseliner who uses positioning and consistency to beat his opponents. Monfils is well known for his athleticism and his court coverage, regularly using slides to get balls, even on the hard court. His ability to go from defensive to offensive can quickly take his opponents by surprise. Monfils has occasionally demonstrated that he is capable of generating huge stride on his bounce off both wings, especially his forehand, which can reach 190 km/h. He has gained a reputation for showmanship and high-risk shotmaking throughout his career.
Monfils uses a half-Western grip on the front and a continental/half-Western combination on his backhand. Monfils has a strong, precise serve capable of reaching 230 km/h, although its focus is on consistency and placement, sometimes at the expense of strength.
Equipment and clothing
Monfils was organized by Nike for clothing and shoes, but changed to K-Swiss in 2010. 2013 he switched to Asics for clothing and shoes. Monfils was organized by the head for racquets, but changed to Prince in 2009 and Wilson in 2012. His current string of choice is the Luxilon Big Banger ALU Power 16L String.
French tennis player Gael Monfils was born in 1986 in Paris. His father was a football player in the past, and through his patronage his sons ended up in the sport. Gael showed his talent for tennis while still a schoolboy. He has a younger brother who is also trying his hand at tennis.
In 2002, Monfils made his debut as a junior. A year later he reached the finals of the Orange Bowl tournament. The beginning professional career tennis player is considered to be 2004. During this period, he received championship in the junior category, thanks to victories in several tournaments.
Already in 2005, Gael Monfils won the Challenger series and also made his mark on the Wimbledon fields by reaching the third round. Such results allowed the tennis player to be among the fifty outstanding rackets in the world. In 2007, Gael reached the third round of the Open Championship in Australia, and also performed successfully at matches at Wimbledon.
A year later, Monfils showed a brilliant performance at tournaments Grand Slam, where he became a semi-finalist. However, despite the fact that the season was going well overall, Gael Monfils had to miss Wimbledon tournament from injury. In 2009, the tennis player managed to become a quarter-finalist at Rolland Garros. At the moment, the Frenchman Monfils has consolidated his position in the world rankings in seventeenth place. However, this season he again had to miss many tournaments due to another injury.
