The Frenchman beat Pavel Kotov in the final (4-6, 7-6, 6-3) of the Stockholm tournament on Sunday, winning the 12th title of his career.
Gaël Monfils is eternal. 652 days after his last coronation, acquired in Adelaide (Australia), in January 2022, the Frenchman won the 12th title of his career, Sunday October 22, in Stockholm. The Habs dominated Pavel Kotov in three sets (4-6, 7-6, 6-3) in the final of the ATP 250 tournament. At 37 years and 51 days, he became the oldest French winner of a tournament since the start of the Open era (in 1968), dethroning Richard Gasquet, who had set the record at the start of the year in Auckland (36 years and 7 months).
All nationalities combined, there are only four in the history of the ATP circuit (since 1990) to have topped their list of achievements after celebrating their 37th birthday. The other three are Roger Federer, Ivo Karlovic and Feliciano Lopez. “La Monf’” is also at 19 consecutive seasons with at least one contested final (only Federer does better). “It proves that even with the injuries I had, I managed to have this longevity. The word that comes to me is consistency”he savored after the semi-final on Saturday.
To win in Stockholm, Gaël Monfils did what he does best. In the final, he was down one set to zero and found himself two points from defeat against the surprising Russian Pavel Kotov. The 109th in the world was punished after failing to hit the nail on the head in the second round. “He pushed me to the end, I ran so much today, smiled the Parisian. I found energy again. When he had three break points, I managed to push him to the tie-break, I continued to believe in it, to fight and it worked.”
394th player in the world in May
Monfils, 140th in the ATP rankings, pocketed a particularly close tie-break (8-6) to equalize at one set all before breaking at the start of a decisive set. “He returns everything”, remarked Pavel Kotov after the meeting. It then took him two match points to get his hands on a trophy that he had already lifted in 2011. “It’s my 12th title, I’m back here 12 years later. I don’t pay too much attention to numbers but maybe 12 is my lucky number“, the Habs had fun during the post-tournament ceremony.
The right-hander had not won five matches in a row since his double in Montpellier and Rotterdam (Netherlands), in February 2020. As if he finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel after a year 2023 that was not very kind to him. Foot and wrist injuries never allowed him to play in matches. To the point of falling to 394th place in the world at the end of May, his worst ranking since September 2004, when he was only 18 years old.
Collaboration with Tillström bears fruit
Before Roland-Garros, where he withdrew after his success against Sebastian Baez in the first round, Gaël Monfils recalled the Swede Mikael Tillström, already at his bedside between 2015 and 2018. “I called him and said, ‘Mikael, I still need your help,’ he said on Sunday. He called me back two days later to say: ‘I saw you play in Aix-en-Provence, it was bad. See you tomorrow at training.”
This work began to bear fruit at the start of the American tour on hard, a surface that “La Monf” particularly appreciates. He reached the quarters at the Masters 1000 in Toronto by eliminating Stefanos Tsitsipas, then Cameron Norrie and Alex de Minaur the following week at the Masters 1000 in Cincinnati.
His 12th coronation will allow him to return to the top 100 on Monday for the first time since January. He will then be 90th in the ATP. The ideal moment before the Masters 1000 at Paris-Bercy, which begins on October 30, but also in projection for next year since such a ranking would directly open the doors to the main draw of the US Open.