“At 0-3, I said to myself that I had not won a match since I became a dad”, is moved by Gaël Monfils after his stunning victory

Cramps, smiles and grimaces. Gaël Monfils, as often, did everything in front of his audience. For his entry into the running at Roland-Garros, he did not have an easy task against the Argentinian Sebastian Baez, 22 years old and 42nd in the world, knowing that he had not won a complete match since last August. (he has won only one meeting on retirement since). But true to his reputation, he went all out to win (3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5).

“You did it! It’s thanks to you! I don’t even know what to say, pushed by the public, I got a new breath. People shouted and I said to myself: ‘come on, let’s go again’. It’s exceptional, I have no words”he breathed on the court to the address of the public, a few seconds after the end of this epic match.

At the bottom of the hole at the start of the final round, where was this strength sought to win each point, each game, to still believe in it and to overcome the pain? “The truth, at three zero, almost four, I said to myself: ‘I haven’t won a match since I became a dad and my daughter is in Paris’. So it was timehe confided. I let go even more, I started to mess around in my head, to be less in the game. I took the energy from the audience, I started to believe in myself. The coaches told me things, I told them things. We did everything, we did nothing. But I don’t have the words.”

“Top 1 or 2” of his best career victories

The words, he found them more in a press conference. Still trudging, his tongue had relaxed at least a little. In the head on the other hand, it is always a Monfils a little hallucinated, sometimes lucid, completely ecstatic who presented himself all smiles. “It’s one of the best sports moments I’ve ever had.“, rejoiced the semi-finalist of the 2008 edition.

“I said to myself: ‘I lived a crazy thing tonight’. Deep down, I knew it was going to be very, very tough, because I trained with Baez last week and thought he was monstrous. When I saw the painting, I was not very happy. Having managed to find unexpected solutions, I’m just very happy.”

These solutions, the current 394th world player drew them from “an exceptional audience” he repeats. And in a rather perilous poker move. After the victory of the second and third sets, the lack of physical marks of the last months in the matches in three winning sets made itself felt. “I did something very daring by dropping the fourth set because I’m tired, I’m dead. I feel like I can’t take it anymore, I tell Mikael (Tillström, his trainer) that I need ten minutes. I needed 25 minutes…“

Time to catch his breath, Monfils lost 6-1 the fourth set, and found himself on the edge of the precipice, trailing 4-0 in the last set and one ball away from conceding a triple break. The kind of situation from which we normally do not recover. But Monfils is definitely not like the others. “What’s crazy is that at Roland-Garros I mentally managed to say to myself: ‘No, no, but don’t worry, I’ll recover and I’ll fuck him in the fifth!’. Can you imagine the sick person that I am!” “Honestly, I didn’t even expect to win this match, it’s only bonus, only positive” he continued, ranking this stunning victory in the top “1 or 2” of her career.