Open Sud de France: “I’m still enjoying it so it’s okay!”, the reaction of Gaël Monfils after his defeat in the first round

Gaël Monfils leaves the Open Sud de France in the first round after his defeat against the Italian Cobolli. Icon Sport – Alexandre Dimou

Beaten by the Italian Flavio Cobolli in three sets (6-7 [8-10], 6-3, 6-0), in the round of 16, this Wednesday, January 31, Gaël Monfils won presented at a press conference. He will not add a fourth open to his record.

What happened in this meeting ?

He was stronger than me in this match. Winning the tie-break, I thought it was going to work in my favor. Behind me I'm trying to get him the points, he makes fewer mistakes, I'm less aggressive, more wait-and-see and he plays well. In the third set, his game to break me was incredible. He was stronger. On the last set there is frustration because he is stronger I get annoyed and he plays quickly, to the right, to the left… hellip; Bravo to him.

What are you missing right now ?

I lack that little confidence to win a match and then move on. This happened to me in the USA when I came back last year. But I'll end up feeling good again.

Often when you lose a match like that, you take a few steps back. I served poorly, I didn’t find the right angles. I was brave once on a volley.

How will this happen now ?

I'm going to go back to work, try to score a victory. Afterwards, confidence comes back quickly on my side. I know that with one or two victories, it will come back quickly. If I feel good and I manage to impose my game, I am not safe from playing good tennis. What’s hard is that my average level has dropped compared to what I used to be. I'm just trying to win matches. I’m learning to deal with staying motivated. It's hard, I trained well to be there and in the end you lose in three sets quite sharply… The competitor is still there so it's hard. I lost here, in the 1st round but I might make it half in Rotterdam.. There is a better chance that I lose in the 1st round…

When did you become aware of this ?

When I injured my foot (it had been out for seven months between September 2022 and March 2023), a lot of very hard things happened in my life. I realized that it was going to be long. I sat down and said to myself: "Maybe it's over, I'm 36, we have to make sacrifices again…&quot ; We talked with my team, the family… My wife helped me try to find that confidence but I lost something. I gave myself a real last chance by changing teams just before Roland-Garros, I was able to come back, regain confidence and here we go again. I hope it goes well again. I still want to win. I hope to go above the 70th places and try to enjoy it. I'm learning to lose a lot more. We lose earlier, it’s different. But I still like it so it's okay…