A hooked match, on alternating current. Without losing a set but with forceps, Gaël Monfils got out of the Miomir Kecmanovic rut (7-5, 7-6, 6-3), Sunday January 23, in the round of 16 in Melbourne. For the first time since 2016, he joins the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, where he will face Matteo Berrettini or Pablo Carreno Busta.
After three easily won matches, Gaël Monfils (n°20) had to work for 2 hours 35 minutes to eliminate Miomir Kecmanovic, yet classified only 77th at ATP. The 22-year-old Serb, who had never passed the second round in a Grand Slam, never got upset and bravely played his luck.
Gaël Monfils alternated ups and downs, like the tie-break of the second set where he chained two superb shots followed by two double faults. Well helped by a service at the rendezvous (17 aces for 4 double faults), the 35-year-old Frenchman managed his end of the match when he seemed blunt: bent in two leaning on his racket at each end of the rally.
“He was playing really fast and it was really wet. As I was trying to get behind every ball, physically I took a hit, told the Monf at the end of the match. But I could have lasted four hours like that. It’s just my way of refocusing and recovering.”
Stepping up when it counts
Monfils 7-5 7-6(4) Kecmanovic@Gael_Monfils · #AusOpen · #AO2022
: @wwos · @espn · @Eurosport · @wowowtennis pic.twitter.com/CG4Z9XxnDq— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 23, 2022
While the ends of the first and second sets could have tipped in favor of the Serb, the Frenchman’s experience weighed. More realistic, Gaël Monfils ended up bending Miomir Kecmanovic in the third set, being decisive at key moments (two break points out of three materialized, none out of two for the Serb).
With this new victory, and still no set lost, Gaël Monfils gave himself the right to continue dreaming of reaching the last four of the Australian Open for the first time. And why a new title on Australian soil after that of Adelaide on January 9?