“It’s not my goal, and I’ve never really played very well here”: Monfils out in first round in Madrid

Monfils n'a pas réussi à battre Darderi, mercredi. MAXPPP – SEBASTIEN NOGIER

Gaël Monfils (40e mondial) a été éliminé sèchement dès le premier tour du Masters 1000 de Madrid mercredi 24 avril par l’Italien Luciano Darderi (60e), vainqueur du Français 6-4, 6-2 en 1 h 17.

In difficulty on serve, Monfils, 37, was no match for the young 22-year-old Italian, whose first victory in Masters 1000, and ended the match with his head down after too many numerous unforced errors.

"He had a good match, very solid, very hard to overwhelm, he served very well. For me, today it was a little harder, I made a lot of mistakes, I had difficulty finding a good rhythm on serve to pass more first balls (balls )" declared the French player in the mixed zone.

"I'm progressing gradually, I'm playing matches again to be better physically […] Madrid is not my goal, and I've never really been very good played here,” he said.

Roland-Garros in sight

Monfils added that he was going to take advantage of this early elimination to "rework physically" and "try to arrive in good conditions for Rome (May 8-19)" before Lyon (May 18-25) and Roland-Garros (May 20-June 9).

"Of the Roland-Garros there are not a thousand left, so the objective is really to be able to savor" assured the 37-year-old. Another Frenchman, Arthur Rinderknech (77th), was also beaten in the first round, in three sets 6-4, 7-6, 6-3, by the Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko (59th), future opponent of the doubles champion. title Carlos Alcaraz for his entry into the running at the end of the week.