ATP Adelaide – Gaël Monfils titled after his victory over Karen Khachanov, 6-4, 6-4

He could not have hoped for a better start in 2022. After having experienced a very difficult 2021 financial year, Gaël Monfils started the year of renewal with a bang. Sunday in Adelaide, he won the 11th title of his career for his first tournament of the season, by completely mastering Karen Khachanov, 29th player in the world, in two sets (6-4, 6-4) and 1h19 of play in final. This success will allow the French to find the Top 20 on Monday, one week before the start of the Australian Open (January 17-30).

He hadn’t known this sensation for almost two years. The last time he lifted a trophy was in Rotterdam in 2020. Then, the health crisis broke out and Gaël Monfils got lost on the way. But after a more promising end of the year 2021 and a studious offseason, he has obviously managed to get back on the right track and Karen Khachanov paid the price on Sunday.

A service already very developed as a launching pad for an aggressive game

Like the other matches of his week, Monfils has built his success on a particularly sharp service: with 73% of first balls, 81% of success behind, 6 aces for no double faults (his sinful sin when confidence does not exist). ‘is not there), he did not leave much space for his opponent. He will also have known only one real alert in this final, when he had to rule out two consecutive break points at 2-3, 15/40, at the start of the game. For the rest, he showed impressive solidity and serenity.

Another statistic that speaks volumes: Monfils lost only two points (in the same game) on his engagement in the second act, also chaining shutouts. And he took advantage of this insurance to put pressure on his opponent in the end of sets. Each time, he cracked Khachanov when he had to serve to stay in each set at 5-4. It must be said that once the exchange started, the Russian had no real solutions to overwhelm his opponent (only 11 winning strokes for 28 unforced errors for him).

Remarkably consistent on the backhand diagonal, Monfils did not hesitate to sometimes suddenly change direction along the line to surprise, which worked wonderfully. He was especially well released on the forehand, taking advantage of each short ball to be aggressive. A few days before the Australian Open, that is promising. Monfils seems to have given himself the means to be ambitious again.