Mary Pierce’s countryman, Gael Monfils, will have to neutralize Roger Federer tomorrow if he has to move ahead in the ongoing French Open and make the quarter finals.
This is the 13th time that Monfils is going to meet Federer on the tour.
The Swiss maestro has a lead of 8-4 over the Frenchman so far, but, the point to be noted is that quite a few times recently, Monfils has managed to run Federer close and has even ended on top occasionally.
So, Federer does not go into this as the hot favourite. It would be almost a 50-50 encounter to start with.
Talking to the press on the eve of the match, Federer also tried to suggest that Monfils is a far better player than he was a few years back and facing him these days is not easy at all.
In the words of the 17-time Grand Slam Champion, “It’s been tougher to face Gael off late. He has really grown as a player.”
Monfils’ confidence would be really high because of the fact that he already has a couple of wins over Federer this season and that too in big competitions like the Davis Cup and the Monte Carlo Masters.
Monfils also holds the home advantage. The crowd will be behind him. Read more »
Other people might be a little reluctant to have Rafael Nadal as their pick for the French Open this time around but Marion Bartoli reckons that, in spite of the poor form of the Spaniard, it will be him who is going to lift the trophy at Roland Garros.
According to Bartoli, if it had been any other tournament to be played on clay, then she might have thought twice before picking Nadal as favourite, but simply because it’s the French Open and the matches are going to be of 5 sets, it would be hard for anyone to topple the clay court king. Read more »
Mary Pierce’s countryman Gael Monfils has become such an injury prone player these days.
No player on the tour would have withdrawn from the middle of the matches as much as Monfils has done in the recent times.
In almost every second tournament, he does something to himself and goes down.
There was that same scene in Miami a couple of days ago when he could not survive a slide playing in Round no. 4 versus the Czech Republic International Tomas Berdych.
It did not seem to be that big an injury though the way Monfils talked about it later on, but, because of him being so injury prone, he might be denied the chance of playing in the Davis Cup this year.
Arnaud Clement, the man in charge of the Davis Cup team of France, might not want to gamble his inclusion for the tie versus Great Britain as there is no guarantee regarding his fitness.
Monfils’ numbers in the Davis Cup though are as good as anyone else. Who can forget his win over Roger Federer the previous year? What a great performance that was.
But, it’s hard not to worry about his fragile fitness.
Also, grass court tennis isn’t Monfils’ forte. Clement have to consider that as well.
It’s almost certain that the tie between Great Britain and France is going to take place at Queen’s club where the surface is quite grassy and quick. That might not be to the liking of Monfils. Read more »
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October 4, 2015 5:26 pm | 
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