In the spring, we said that Gaël Monfils, undermined by injuries and dropped to 394th in the world at the end of May, was closer to announcing his retirement from sports than winning a 12th career title. His withdrawal at Roland-Garros, after a heroic match against the Argentinian Sebastian Baez, also went in this direction. We had still underestimated the Frenchman, who won this Sunday in the final of the ATP 250 tournament in Stockholm, his first tournament victory since January 2022 in Adelaide, Australia.
At 37 years old, the “Monf’”, currently 140th in the world, is sure to re-enter the Top 100 this Monday. In the Swedish capital, he beat the astonishing Russian qualifier Pavel Kotov (24) in the final in three sets (4-6, 7-6). [6]6-3).
The “most charismatic player of the last two decades” (dixit Novak Djokovic) missed a first match point on his serve at 5-2 in the third set. But he finished the job in the following game to close the match at 2h35 minutes against the 109th in the world.
A family success
More than eighteen years after the first of his 34 ATP finals, won in Sopot in Poland on August 7, 2005, Monfils won under the watchful eye of his Swedish coach Mikael Tillström, his mother and his wife Elina Svitolina. “This is my first victory as a father,” added the father of Skaï, born October 15, 2022, during his post-victory speech.
This is his second coronation in Stockholm after 2011. He becomes the fourth player over the age of 37 to win an ATP title since 1990, after Roger Federer, Feliciano Lopez and Ivo Karlovic. See you soon for new longevity records?