• At the end of a disappointing day for French tennis on Tuesday, Gaël Monfils signed one of his two most memorable career matches against Sebastian Baez.
  • In perdition in the middle of the fifth set, at the time of saving a ball of 0-5 against the tough Argentine, the "Monf" found unsuspected resources to reverse everything in its path (3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5).
  • This night session on the Central, which will remain whatever happens a very strong moment of this Roland-Garros, was built in several key timings, which 20 Minutes presents to you.

At Roland-Garros,

"The coaches were trying to tell me things, I was telling them things too. So we did everything and we did nothing. If we try to decipher one of the craziest victories in the history of French tennis at Roland-Garros, this spontaneous confidence of Gaël Monfils to Marion Bartoli, before leaving a Central in jubilation at almost 0:30, reminds us to order. No, the success of the "Monf" over the Argentine Sebastian Baez (3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5), after a battle of titans of 3:47, has nothing to do with the rational. It is far too unexpected, intense, wild and collective to be analyzed under tactical dimensions. Similarly, we would totally miss the epic dimension of this "night session" if we nuanced the scope of this feat by arguing that it is only an entry into the competition in a Grand Slam.

"In fact, you forget that it's the first round, you tell yourself that you have experienced something crazy," summarizes Gaël Monfils, whose sobs in the middle of the clay will perhaps remain as the most iconic image of this Roland-Garros. And it doesn't matter if it happened in the first week. The man with 41 winning shots, as exciting in post-match as heroic on the Philippe-Chatrier, shared several secrets showing how this crazy 30... and 31 May.

A highly feared adversary

If Sebastian Baez is still unknown to the general public, he was obviously the huge favorite of this meeting, given the 352 places, but also the 14 years separating him from Gaël Monfils. Between injuries and sports hiccups, the latter had not won a single game since August 2022 in Montreal. What's more, the West Indian knew Sebastian Baez well. "I trained with him last week and I thought he was monstrous," he said. It wasn't the first round I wanted, and honestly I didn't expect to win this match. »

It's true, how could the young Baez (you got him?) be upset by a 36-year-old Gaël Monfils and still beaten in the first round at the Open Parc de Lyon the week before? "Since my return to the circuit, I told myself that I was waiting for Roland-Garros to win my first match, it was for sure," smiled the tennis player. Honestly, I didn't even expect to win this game. An opinion shared by all the Central, seen as the "Monf" was not really in it, during a first set serenely managed by Baez (3-6).

A fourth set deliberately zapped

Against all odds, Gaël Monfils began to excite the audience of the night session by winning the next two sets (6-3, 7-5). It is most often snatching, and at the price of pralines sent from everywhere near the lines. But we quickly understand that there is a physical breakdown, on the French side, with serious consequences. Sebastian Baez quickly signs a break, and we feel Monfils tempted not to hang on in this fourth set. What was it exactly? "I'm doing something very daring by dropping the fourth set because I'm tired," admits "la Monf". I'm dead, I feel like I can't take it anymore and I tell Mikael [Tillström, his coach] that I need 10 minutes. I actually needed 25 minutes! The current 394th player in the world then regaled us by developing his remarks in a press conference.

At Roland Garros, I mentally managed to say to myself, 'No, but don't worry, I'm going to recover and I'm going to beat him in the fifth'. You can imagine the sick man that I am. I told myself that if I do the opposite and I lose 6-4 in the fourth set, I take 6-1 in the fifth. If it doesn't pass for X reasons, I'm dead. The fact is, it paid off. »

At 0-3 in the fifth, Monfils thinks of his daughter

"A choice that pays off", it is debatable, because Gaël Monfils obviously did not miraculously resume his march forward of the first two sets, when the final set starts. On the verge of breaking, at 0-3 and while the games are scrolling, little Skaï (7 months) enters his thoughts. I thought, 'Fuck, I haven't won a match since I became a dad, while Elina [Svitolina, her partner] won her first tournament in Strasbourg. My daughter is in Paris and I was still going to win a what. I then relaxed a little, I started messing around in my head, being a little less in the game."

And the semi-finalist in 2008 Porte d'Auteuil is never more dangerous than when his attacks fuse without the slightest restraint. We no longer list the wagons of reverse long line which then fly to attack a remontada.

"Don't want to take 6-0 in the fifth"

Before really considering this remontada, it was necessary to save a ball of 0-5, against an opponent returning everything or almost. Part of the Central has just emptied and the euphoria of the epilogue of the third set seems only a distant memory. But at the moment of finally concluding, in a priori rather anecdotal way, his first game on a well-brought backhand, the 36-year-old player spreads his arms = and sticks out his tongue, all smiles. What then goes through his head?

"I didn't want to take 6-0 in the fifth, it was only Murray who screwed me (in 2014). I wanted to win at least one game and subconsciously, I tell myself that if I can push, there is a world where there is the wind with me on the other side, and we do not know... »

The "adrenaline" of the Central carried him to the feat

Now we know, and the atmosphere of madness of the Philippe-Chatrier played a key role in this unlikely scenario, where the Frenchman ended up finding "unexpected solutions". "It's thanks to you, thank you from the bottom of my heart," repeated Gaël Monfils to the public at the end of the match. "I was all about adrenaline at the end," he says. I was asking the audience to shout and somehow being pushed that way helped me get up. I had a new breath, it was a crazy kif . I said to myself "come on, we're hurting ourselves again". I took the energy of the audience and I believed in myself. From then on, every point won was celebrated as a goal, with a fervor that will be a landmark in the history of the Central.



And what about the Marseillaise, carried in unison by all the stands, at 3-4 ... and 11 consecutive points from Gaël Monfils? This episode has downright delayed by a few seconds the putting into play of Sebastian Baez, who has gradually become alone in the world in the heart of this immense enclosure... The memorable points will then only follow one another, between a small lunar forehand at 4-5 to a dream backhand pass to take control (6-5). Before the apotheosis: a counter-cushioning (then a delicious volley) that will definitely cost him the "mobility" of his quadris in the last game, then this new pass carried by fate / the band of the net. "It's one of the best moments of sport I've ever had," says the player, who puts this match at the top of his personal pantheon, alongside the homeric five-set success against Pablo Cuevas on the Suzanne Lenglen, during the 2015 edition.

How to envisage, after such a shot of collective euphoria, that Gaël Monfils will appear again on the Central on Thursday, against the formidable Dane Holger Rune (world number 6)? "It's cool to have the chance to play a Top 10," he said. You have to go with panache, experience and the magic of sport, you never know. I'm ready to hurt myself. And we'll try to have a nice party for the second round as well. Hold on, this teaser is enough to validate his presence in the evening Thursday. Because Gaël Monfils has also just made a double blow: embellishing both the record of French tennis at Roland-Garros, and that of the night sessions. And this from a simple first round.

  • Roland-Garros 2023
  • Tennis
  • Gaël Monfils
  • Sport
  • Grand slam