It is a cruel irony in tennis that by the time you understand how to make the best of your game, you are often too old to reap the benefits. Youth confers a dynamism that age can only envy; experience brings the kind of insight that make players wish they had known then, what they know now.
Yet there is a sweet spot between youth and wisdom that can yield unexpected treasures and, at the age of 35, Gaël Monfils may just have found it. Over the course of a career that has seen the gifted Frenchman rise as high as sixth in the world and reach semi-finals at the French and US Opens, there has always been a lingering sense that he might have achieved even more had he been able to combine his natural showmanship with a more ruthless edge. Facing Daniil Medvedev at Indian Wells, Monfils did just that, fighting back from a set down to claim a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory that ends the Russian’s brief reign as world No 1 for the time being.
On the one hand, the contest offered everything one might expect from a Monfils match. There were lung-busting rallies, leaping backhand returns, vicious forehand winners. There were variations of spin and pace, thrilling feats of athleticism, audacious underarm serves loaded with sidespin. There was also, inevitably, humour. When Medvedev demolished a racket early in the decider, Monfils kept the crowd entertained by grabbing a towel and hammily emulating the sweeping motion used by the court attendants to wipe away the shards of graphite.
Yet there was also grit, determination, purpose. On a searingly hot afternoon in the California desert, Monfils stuck doggedly to his task, shrugging off the single lapse of concentration that cost him the opening set to claim his second victory in three meetings with Medvedev. It was only the second time in 20 attempts that the Frenchman had beaten a reigning world No 1, his previous victory having come 13 years ago in Doha against Rafael Nadal.
“It hasn’t been easy, you know,” said Monfils when asked to identify the most significant win of his career. “I feel like I’m old. So I have many, but I don’t remember exactly which one. But of course, many matches. When you beat the best player in the world, [it] is always a great moment.”
The result continues what has been an encouraging start to the year for Monfils, who said after reaching the last eight at the Australian Open in January that he had not given up hope of one day winning a major. “Who knows?” he reflected after a five-set defeat to Matteo Berrettini. “This year it might click.” While the stars would need to align for that ambition to be fulfilled, this performance offered a pertinent reminder that, even after almost two decades in the professional game, Monfils is still evolving as a player. Even his showmanship is not without motive these days, as his account of the court-sweeping incident indicated.
“[Medvedev’s racket] has a lot of carbon, and I know myself, I can cut easy,” said Monfils, who will play Carlos Alcaraz in the last 16 after the Spanish teenager demolished Roberto Bautista Agut 6-2, 6-0.
“I can put my hand or have a slip on it. It looked [like] fun, but it was actually [done] to make sure that I won’t cut myself, you know? I make it fun in a way, but I knew exactly what I was doing too.”
The outburst of frustration from Medvedev that necessitated the French veteran’s impromptu clean-up operation was, felt Monfils, a turning point. Medvedev went off court for a change of attire at the end of the second set but, despite a lengthy delay, he quickly became agitated when his opening service game began to slip away, gesticulating animatedly towards his box. When the Muscovite drove a forehand long on Monfils’ second break point, his racket bore the full brunt of his disappointment.
“After the first break in the third set, I felt something was a little bit different,” reflected Monfils. “He was a bit off, complaining. He broke his racket, complaining about his forehand a little bit. And of course, when you have this information you try to press a little bit more on it and be more aware about it. I gave him more forehands to play, and [started] moving him more towards the forehand.”
Medvedev reserved warm praise for Monfils while expressing frustration at his own lack of consistency, which he attributed partly to misplaced confidence after winning the opening set.
“Gael played good and it was enough for him to win today, and second and third set was not that close, to be honest,” said Medvedev, who will cede the No 1 ranking to Novak Djokovic next week after failing to make the quarter-finals.
“I just couldn’t find my rhythm and completely lost it in the third set because, I think actually first match and first set maybe played even a little bit bad, bad thing with me because I felt like I was playing not bad. So I think I got a little bit too confident in that, okay, I’m starting to feel my rhythm.
“Maybe I should have paid more attention to small details. In the third set [it was] really tough to get it back, and it was going easy for him.”
The decider was a far cry from the opening set, in the ninth game of which Monfils bookended two consecutive double faults with a pair of wayward forehands to drop serve to love. No doubt many onlookers rolled their eyes heavenwards at that point, but nowadays the Frenchman is less susceptible to the frailties of old. A rifled forehand winner secured a break in the eighth game of the second set, and from there he never looked back.