His 2021 worries seem to be behind him.
Gaël Monfils started the 2022 season in the best possible way: by winning a title in his first tournament, at the ATP 250 in Adelaide.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the French, 21st player in the world, beat without too much trembling (6-4, 6-4) the Russian Karen Khachanov (n ° 29).
What to fill up with confidence, while its first big event of the year, the Australian Open, starts in a week.
🏆 CHAMPION 🏆
Kachanov fought hard but Monfils held on with a 6-4 6-4 win taking the 2022 Adelaide International Men's Singles Champion title 🙌🔥 # AdelaideTennis pic.twitter.com/uWHmiQxij9
- Adelaide International (@AdelaideTennis) January 9, 2022
Master of his subject, Monfils, 35, has not lost a single set this week and stood out with some spectacular shots he knows the secret.
In the final, he was able to weigh in the hot moments, breaking each time in the last game of the set.
Experience has surely played its part: the Ile-de-France has played a final in an ATP tournament every year since 2005. On the circuit, only Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Jimmy Connors have done better.
The end of 18 months of hardship
However, Monfils had not won a title since February 2020 and a string of successes in Montpellier then Rotterdam.
Since then, he was by his own admission struggling on the circuit, disturbed by the pandemic and the restrictions it imposes.
“It undermined me,” he said at the start of the week.
I experienced it very badly on the personal side and the pro side.
For me the period of mid-2020 and 2021 no longer exists.
The only thing I remember from 2021 is my wedding (in July) but it was really a bad year, I don't even have words to talk about it.
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To read also "But why no one plays with your rackets?"
Gaël Monfils, new ambassador of Decathlon
Rejuvenated and with a new 100% French equipment supplier, Décathlon, he will approach the Australian Open next Monday in a much better position to do better than last year, where he was eliminated in the first round.
