Gaël Monfils will not show up on Thursday evening to set the Roland-Garros center on fire once again. The 36-year-old Frenchman called an impromptu press conference at 11:23 p.m. Wednesday to announce his withdrawal from his second round, which he was to play in a night session against Holger Rune. The day after his stunning first round against Sebastian Baez, he was again caught by his body and suffered a partial rupture of the TFCC (a ligament) in his left wrist.
For Monfils, who had signed Porte d’Auteuil his first success since his return after seven months of absence, the blow is terrible. He did not expand too much during his short appearance in the press room, but his few words were enough to measure his dismay: “I don’t show it too much, there is more than disappointment… How many Rolands do I have left? I can’t answer, but how many do I have left? I heard the news 30 minutes ago, it’s fresh. For the moment, I digest. »
“The doctor told me not to play”
The Frenchman spent his day on Wednesday in doubt, worried by the pain he had felt in his wrist during his match the day before. Facing the Argentinian, he had called the physio for a few moments on the court but ” the adrenaline “, according to his word, had enabled him to go to the end of the duel and of himself. He then appeared at a press conference with ice around his wrist.
On Wednesday, after attending his partner Elina Svitolina’s match, Monfils went to training and then did some treatment and then came back to train. The pain dogged him all day. After an inconclusive ultrasound, an MRI ended up giving a definitive verdict by revealing a partial rupture of one of his ligaments. “The doctor told me not to play”summed up the Frenchman.
Available for turf?
He remains uncertain about the duration of his absence, but the first examinations suggested that he could resume quite quickly: ” Tomorrow (THURSDAY), I’m going to do arthrography to know the exact delay. It would be a few weeks, it’s not huge, it can be very fast or a little longer. If it had been a complete breakup, it would have been more serious. I will know more tomorrow about the delay, but the doctor told me that he was hopeful that I could play on grass. »
Even if he resumes in a few weeks, this injury marks a new setback for the man who is now ranked 394th in the world and has been chasing his form for a long time. Last year, Monfils dragged a problem in his right foot before pulling a curtain on the end of his season after his retirement in the round of 16 in Montreal. He had taken many months to return, returning to competition on a loss in Indian Wells in March before giving up in Miami due to a right wrist injury.
At Roland-Garros, he had just returned to success and above all to thrills, offering himself an unforgettable evening for his first round. But his body, once again, recalled his bad memory.