Monfils: "Monfils: 'Nothing Is Gifted, Nothing Is About Talent'

[Mainad]

“People think that we’re talented, gifted,” says Monfils. “Nothing is gifted, nothing is about talent, it’s about work. You work harder than everyone else. People mistake working and winning. You can work really hard and not win, not have the result you want. It’s tough. For all the players on the Tour [at ITF Futures, Challengers and the ATP Tour], they are working from a young age. I’m here now because I’ve worked hard, my parents worked hard and fought very hard to give me the possibility to one day play tennis at the top level.”

Gael Monfils: 'Nothing Is Gifted, Nothing Is About Talent' | ATP Tour | Tennis

You can’t take your eyes off Gael Monfils, the flexible and athletic showman, capable of great creativity, flexibility and craft; or the honest, straight forward and friendly athlete off the court.

www.atptour.com

 

[Cashman]

Methinks he doth protest too much.

 

[Mr.Lob]

Sounds like Monfils is sick and tired of hearing how talented he is....without winning anything big.

 

[Tostao80]

“People think that we’re talented, gifted,” says Monfils. “Nothing is gifted, nothing is about talent, it’s about work. You work harder than everyone else. People mistake working and winning. You can work really hard and not win, not have the result you want. It’s tough. For all the players on the Tour [at ITF Futures, Challengers and the ATP Tour], they are working from a young age. I’m here now because I’ve worked hard, my parents worked hard and fought very hard to give me the possibility to one day play tennis at the top level.”

Gael Monfils: 'Nothing Is Gifted, Nothing Is About Talent' | ATP Tour | Tennis

You can’t take your eyes off Gael Monfils, the flexible and athletic showman, capable of great creativity, flexibility and craft; or the honest, straight forward and friendly athlete off the court.

www.atptour.com

Roger is not about talent?

 

[ollinger]

Methinks he doth protest too much.

One can never draw very useful conclusions from an article that sprang from an interview. We don't know what question some of his comments were in response to, or how his comments were clipped and edited. Writers use what they want and you never get to see the rest.

 

[DSH]

Gael, tu as donné un titre au Serbe.
Je suis déçu de toi!

 

[Backspin1183]

Sounds like Monfils is sick and tired of hearing how talented he is....without winning anything big.

You're probably right about that. He'd also once said that if he was good enough to win the French Open, he'd have won already. He probably wants people to know that it is not a lack of effort from his end why he has not won a big title.

 

[FatHead250]

"Talent" is the word people say to themselves not to feel bad about their own ability. There is no such thing. One thing only is that athletes can be better physically geneticly, and whether they have some any physical impairments. After that comes how they play on the court. Federer is smarter with his body that's why he plays more effrotlessly. And smarter with his head - that's why he wins matches. He's always been ready to recognise what he's doing wrong and work on soulutions. Which led him to have the game he has. Other players do a same thing over and over and meet their ceiling

 

[MeatTornado]

You're probably right about that. He'd also once said that if he was good enough to win the French Open, he'd have won already. He probably wants people to know that it is not a lack of effort from his end why he has not won a big title.

He's right, it's probably not why.

But it probably is why his overall results are so mediocre for a man of his, ahem, talent. He's not good enough to win majors against the Big 4. But he is good enough to win more than just 10 250/500 tournaments with very mediocre Masters/Majors results.

If he wants people to think he's putting in full effort, stop acting like a clown on the court. It's not that complicated.

 

[PeoplesChamp]

I think he has some regret.

He mentions that he didn't always pay attention in the article.

 

[Mike Sams]

I think he has some regret.

He mentions that he didn't always pay attention in the article.

watch his match against Gulbis at AO this year. It was so boring. No ambition or motivation from either player. Just two guys comfortably rallying as if they're in a practice session. Monfils seems like he just wants to be entertaining for all the 50+ year old women in the crowd. If you put a gun to his mother's head, you'd see him play with real purpose. But why bother? He's got no will to leave it all out there.

 

[HetTheGreaterer]

“People think that we’re talented, gifted,” says Monfils. “Nothing is gifted, nothing is about talent, it’s about work. You work harder than everyone else. People mistake working and winning. You can work really hard and not win, not have the result you want. It’s tough. For all the players on the Tour [at ITF Futures, Challengers and the ATP Tour], they are working from a young age. I’m here now because I’ve worked hard, my parents worked hard and fought very hard to give me the possibility to one day play tennis at the top level.”

Gael Monfils: 'Nothing Is Gifted, Nothing Is About Talent' | ATP Tour | Tennis

You can’t take your eyes off Gael Monfils, the flexible and athletic showman, capable of great creativity, flexibility and craft; or the honest, straight forward and friendly athlete off the court.

www.atptour.com

Murygoat

 

[ledwix]

Nonsense. Everything is about genetic gifts and being born into privilege on the basis of one's gender and heritage, no?

 

[PeoplesChamp]

watch his match against Gulbis at AO this year. It was so boring. No ambition or motivation from either player. Just two guys comfortably rallying as if they're in a practice session. Monfils seems like he just wants to be entertaining for all the 50+ year old women in the crowd. If you put a gun to his mother's head, you'd see him play with real purpose. But why bother? He's got no will to leave it all out there.

I haven't seen any of that matxh, but I've seen plenty of other times that Monfils has disappointed in some type of way. It's the randomness in general whatever it may be.

 

[Mike Sams]

I haven't seen any of that matxh, but I've seen plenty of other times that Monfils has disappointed in some type of way. It's the randomness in general whatever it may be.

It's guys like Monfils and his passive zero effs attitude which allows the top 3 guys to rack up all the Slams. We can clearly tell that Monfils and many other guys on the tour can play with real vigor when they're in the mood. But they hardly do. It's just a job to them to make good money while enjoying the good life.

 

[PeoplesChamp]

It's guys like Monfils and his passive zero effs attitude which allows the top 3 guys to rack up all the Slams. We can clearly tell that Monfils and many other guys on the tour can play with real vigor when they're in the mood. But they hardly do. It's just a job to them to make good money while enjoying the good life.

It does seem that way with a lot of players. I saw his match with Djokovic in Dubai. The first two sets because I turned it off after he blew all the MPs lol. He demonstrated that he could hang with Djokovic, but you just knew deep down that it wasn't going to happen. Frustrating because I know he and a few others CAN do it.

 

[Walle]

watch his match against Gulbis at AO this year. It was so boring. No ambition or motivation from either player. Just two guys comfortably rallying as if they're in a practice session. Monfils seems like he just wants to be entertaining for all the 50+ year old women in the crowd. If you put a gun to his mother's head, you'd see him play with real purpose. But why bother? He's got no will to leave it all out there.

That wasn't lack of motivation, that was a tactical choice by Monfils. He knew he'd be more patient than Gulbis and he was right. That's how he always beats Ernie. It sucks. Gulbis tried to be patient as well but Monfils is a better pusher than him.

 

[Terenigma]

I’m here now because I’ve worked hard, my parents worked hard and fought very hard to give me the possibility to one day play tennis at the top level.”

Yep and he uses that chance to clown around on important points for a couple of minutes of fan appreciation. Working hard and training is most of the work for sure but there is natural talent. You cant teach speed, you can't teach reflexes and reaction time and there are players that can read the game on the fly better than others and not fall to pressure of big points. All of this is talent in various ways.

 

[NatF]

Hmmmm...

 

[Doctor/Lawyer Red Devil]

It's guys like Monfils and his passive zero effs attitude which allows the top 3 guys to rack up all the Slams. We can clearly tell that Monfils and many other guys on the tour can play with real vigor when they're in the mood. But they hardly do. It's just a job to them to make good money while enjoying the good life.

Right, if only Monfils and some others didn't have a passive zero effs attitude it would have been lights out for the Big 3. Simple as that.

 

[joohan]

"Talent" is the word people say to themselves not to feel bad about their own ability. There is no such thing. One thing only is that athletes can be better physically geneticly, and whether they have some any physical impairments. After that comes how they play on the court. Federer is smarter with his body that's why he plays more effrotlessly. And smarter with his head - that's why he wins matches. He's always been ready to recognise what he's doing wrong and work on soulutions. Which led him to have the game he has. Other players do a same thing over and over and meet their ceiling

Ridiculous... Talent, gift, predisposition, a favourable cocktail of genes...call it what you want but it's there. Or are you trying to tell me that I can putt like Tiger, ski as smooth as Mikaela or pot snooker balls like Ronnie it's just that I don't try hard enough? I'm not even going into painting and music... Take surgeons for instance - you can study as hard as you can and know your anatomy forwards and backwards...if don't have a "proper" set of hands on you, you hit you ceiling very soon.

Now I'm not saying hard work doesn't even out talent because it does most of the time. But if someone talented works his bottom off then you can only wave him as he passes you by if your talent is not in the same ballpark. David Ferrer vs Federer springs to mind. Does not get more obvious than that.

 

[bjsnider]

Monfils has great physical talent, which cannot be taught, but can be refined by hard work. What Monfils lacks is historically great racket skills. The all-time greats were wizards with the wand, and Monfils is not.

 

[PrinceMoron]

Gael, tu as donné un titre au Serbe.
Je suis déçu de toi!

The good Lord gives. The good Serbe taketh away


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[federer15]

Yeah I definitely don't agree with this statement. I think this would only be true if every human was physically and genetically the same. Tennis in particular is a mix of talent, hard-work, and mental fitness. Monfils is just a gifted athlete in general, it's amazing what he can do on a tennis court and I'd argue he could've gone pro in other sports too. I can't say with confidence how hard he worked, but he prioritized entertainment for the crowd over winning, so that's why he didn't end up with the results he was expected to have.