For his comeback on the circuit, Gaël Monfils suffered an unexpected setback (6-2, 6-4) against the German Koepfer, 95th in the world. Too stressed, the Parisian systematically foils in Rome
Gaël Monfils had not walked a court in official competition since February 28 in Dubai and his final lost by a hair against Novak Djokovic. It was his choice to skip the American tour. This Thursday evening in Rome, on the divine court of statues of Foro Italico, the Parisian, 9th at ATP, was opposed to a German qualifier Dominik Koepker, 95th in the world. And ‘Monfe’ took a long time to find its bearings. In 41 minutes, he gave up the first set 6-2, with worrying stats: 17 unforced errors, including five double faults.
After an interruption due to a failure of the projectors, Gaël Monfils did not show any notable progress. Unable to dictate the game, often late, he ended this non-match with a completely off-center forehand (6-2, 6-4 in 1h31).
“I have the impression that as soon as I play in Rome I play this kind of match, he said at a press conference. Two years ago, it was Fognini, last year Ramos. So yes , these seven months ago … I was perhaps too keen to match. I’ve been on site for a week and two days. But the match configuration is changing. It shows that I haven’t no benchmarks. Really a dirty game. Very strange, as soon as I get here, it doesn’t. I was very stressed, I wanted to do a longer warm-up but on the first point, I do an ace on the second ball but it was just stress. “
With his coach, given the heaviness of the calendar, Gaël Monfils had decided to skip the North American tour. “I had two or three ailments to deal with and we thought it was a good choice.” The Frenchman, who aims to qualify for the year-end Masters, is due to play next week in Hamburg before the French Open. He did not wish to comment on the new gauge which will result in matches being held behind closed doors on all courts except the Central Philippe Chatrier.
“I just lost, I had a dirty game, I don’t prefer to express myself. Tonight I played behind closed doors but it was so weird because it was so bad what I got product. Behind closed doors, the world, it was not good … “
