36 year Monfils making a mockery of NextGen this summer

K

Kralingen

Bionic Poster
Let’s give a round of applause to Gael Monfils. At age 36, coming off basically an entire year missed due to injuries (knee and foot), ranked outside the top 300, Monfils has been on fire this summer.

Wins: #26 Bublik (Washington)
#29 Eubanks (Canada)
#4 Tsitsipas (Canada)
#49 Vukic (Canada)
#12 Norrie (Cincy)
#13 De Minaur (Cincy)

He’s always been good in Canada but to carry that into Cincy is awesome. Tsitsipas made AO final, Norrie beat Alcaraz in Cincy last year and De Minaur just made the Canada final so it’s not like he’s catching these guys on their worst surfaces.

He also took a set off Sinner and gave him by far the closest match of anyone in Canada, having chances to win all three sets.

I might add he’s doing all this with a bum knee. He is visibly holding the knee after points and not moving anywhere near as well as he did in his prime.

All hail Gael Monfils… and thumbs down to NextGen who continue to allow themselves to be made to look like mugs. Here he is taking some not-so-subtle shots at the lacking discipline of the young guns:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1691783112131219520
 
To be fair most of them are run of the mill players bar Tsitsipas but anyone can beat him.

It’s not like he beat Rune then Alcaraz etc. Bublik and Eubanks are ranked that high due to being that good on grass I’m sure Bublik off grass this season is like 5-14
 
Also like to point out if Monfils didn’t have air between his ears and a tennis IQ of a club level player at best he would have been great.

Just didn’t know how to use the tools he had mix that in with a non existent mental game and you have one of the biggest let downs in tennis history
 
I love Monfils, if there is ever a tennis player I would want to hangout with outside of tennis, it would be him.

It's great to see him win these matches, the win against ADM was extra sweet, but if the seeds hold, he's going to be facing his daddy in the next round.
 
DjokoLand said:
Also like to point out if Monfils didn’t have air between his ears and a tennis IQ of a club level player at best he would have been great.

Just didn’t know how to use the tools he had mix that in with a non existent mental game and you have one of the biggest let downs in tennis history
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And thats a one way ticket to ignore town.
 
DjokoLand said:
To be fair most of them are run of the mill players bar Tsitsipas but anyone can beat him.

It’s not like he beat Rune then Alcaraz etc. Bublik and Eubanks are ranked that high due to being that good on grass I’m sure Bublik off grass this season is like 5-14
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Having seen the way Rune and Alcaraz have played in Canada and Cincy, I am not so sure they would’ve caused him issues…
 
WYK said:
When I record(ed) tennis and saw Rafa, Federer, Joker, or Monfils on it.
Always watched Monfils first and often deleted Joker before I bothered to watch.
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I’ll be the guy everyone deletes but wins over the guy that loses but gets the YouTube views. lol
 
He should never be forgiven for the way he clowned that USO semi against Djokovic in 2016. He couldn't have had a better chance to make his first slam final and he should have at least made one in his career.
 
Aussie Darcy said:
I don't know how but the baby that Svitolina and him had has truly worked magic on their careers.

Since returning their results have been fantastic.

Svitolina obviously with the French Open QF, a title in Strasbourg and the Wimbledon SF.

Monfils with the results as mentioned by @Kralingen
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Could be that they’re seeing life from a new perspective now as parents. Realizing time is running out and the tennis career is fleeting and all that. I know a lot of people say that once they have a child their entire life changes and they approach everything differently. Monfils especially definitely would feel like he had missed opportunity in his career.

Still though kind of crazy that they’re doing this well given how far off their physical prime they are.
 
Shows what a joke this era truly is that a Guy who was literally in the first topspin game on the original Xbox who’s never done anything, he’s still whipping on this era of jokes who are in their 20s. To me if you play today the bar should be raised for GOAT status. Carlos/Sinner etc will require 40 plus slams and a calendar slam for GOAT
 
I got so see him play Norrie in Cincy.
I don't know so much if he lacks tennis IQ, I feel he has only 2 gears and they are wide apart.
Gear 1--Push (from a professional perspective--still hitting but compared to pros it seemed almost bunting/blocking the ball)
Gear 6--Blast the ball harder than almost anyone on tour.

Against Norrie when rallying he'd either rope a dope and let Norrie control his own fate--either Norrie would hit a winner or error eventually. But with how "weak" some of Monfils shots were it wasn't going well for Monfils at times.
If the rope a dope, gave Monfils a weak ball he would almost always go 110% and go for super winner after super winner.

I wonder if he had some intermediate shots, he'd be able to set up better positions to go for offense and have to take less risk with big drives.
In the end the strategy works against most of these guys, but against the next level it won't work and I think that's what has held him back from greatness.
You can't rope-a-dope Djoker. You can't out positions the Big 3 in their prime and it would be tough in BO5 to out hit them on the court.

But, damn he is fun to watch. Good energy and when he is ripping those forehands, you can't help but smile whether they are in or out.
 
"Le Monf" has a family to feed now! And he's gotta pay off the "rock" on Elina's left hand! Wishing him and his family all the best!
 
DjokoLand said:
To be fair most of them are run of the mill players bar Tsitsipas but anyone can beat him.

It’s not like he beat Rune then Alcaraz etc. Bublik and Eubanks are ranked that high due to being that good on grass I’m sure Bublik off grass this season is like 5-14
Click to expand...

Rune just retired against a nobody.
 
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I feel the OP is discrediting Monfils here. He's full marks for these victories and is playing at a very high level right now. It's great to see.
 
Wawrinka battered Tiafoe last night. Tiafoe didn't play great, but he really didn't play bad. He was just regularly behind in the point as Wawrinka beautifully bashed away. He really looked like he wanted to get it over in two and therefore extra focused. Tiafoe tried to outhit him, which worked for one second - when he broke back to get on serve in the first set (only to get broken in the next game). Wawrinka liked that pace. I felt Tiafoe should have played a little more mix-up with loopy shots to slow things down. But that's me easy armchair-ing.
 
aldeayeah said:
That's bloody rich lol. If only he could have been this driven (and have a decent, non-pushing gameplan) when he was younger!

Love Monf but he's the posterboy for squandered potential. He's let more matches slip between his fingers than I can count...
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Svita is the key! Let's see what La Monf can do today. I don't expect him to beat Novak, but can he keep it close?
 
Aabye5 said:
Svita is the key! Let's see what La Monf can do today. I don't expect him to beat Novak, but can he keep it close?
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Novak didn’t look anything special last night, pretty rusty while Monfils is in his best form, who knows, maybe he’s feeling generous and will spot Gael a win
 
I feel like if you reset your perspective on Monfils and look at him as an entertainer that is also an amazing athlete then you can appreciate him a lot more. If you watch one of his matches you don't know what kind of crazy shot you are going to get. If you watch a Djokovic match you know he will be consistently great, fall behind at the start of a match, claim an injury, and then clinically destroy whoever he is playing. It is just a matter of why you watch the game and what you want out of it.
 
Airspun said:
he DID Challenge the big 3 a lot and had many match points against Djokovic but Chok-fils emerged and was created
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0-18 against djoko
2-14 against rafa
4-10 against fedr (not so bad..)

i think yall are overrating his potential. even tsonga and berdych are better than him imo..
 
Aussie Darcy said:
I don't know how but the baby that Svitolina and him had has truly worked magic on their careers.

Since returning their results have been fantastic.

Svitolina obviously with the French Open QF, a title in Strasbourg and the Wimbledon SF.

Monfils with the results as mentioned by @Kralingen
Click to expand...
A couple of things jump to mind:

1. Focus. The baby has probably made them really focus intently on their tennis careers in the sense that they can't just practice and play anytime - they have the obligations of a child - even with the help I assume they have. So when they do practice and play, they are more focused. And more broadly - I'd think they have enough money not to be playing. So the baby has probably made them focus on the question of whether they actually want to be playing.

2. Age-perspective-thankfulness. Baby probably gave them broader perspective. They're veteran players who possibly realize what a gift it is to be able to do be able to do this for a living. And if they're going to have more children and since they're going to continue aging, they understand that they have to take advantage now.

3. Less tennis stress. Related to perspective, possibly having an infant just makes tennis less life-or-death and they don't get as emotional or worked up in a negative way when playing.

All of this is just theorizing, obviously. Also, everything happening in Ukraine has also probably given them new perspective about their lives and careers.
 
Seems to have finally put Clownfils into storage and starting to play some serious stuff commensurate with his abilities. Pity he didn't do this earlier. At the age of 36 he may have left it too late to start making any deep impressions on the tour but we'll see!
 
big ted said:
0-18 against djoko
2-14 against rafa
4-10 against fedr (not so bad..)

i think yall are overrating his potential. even tsonga and berdych are better than him imo..
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I think you are UNDERRATING his shotmaking GOATNESS, no one is better than him as a human highlight tennis reel.
 
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