Gael Monfils and his 2010 Run
Newly promoted World Number 14 Gael Monfils, also known as MP-Magic or La Monf, is France’s second highest ranked professional tennis player. On this week’s Association of Tennis Professionals, Sliderman, as he is also known due to his unusual sliding technique,
has progressed on the listings, making his way up one notch higher than World Number 15. Monfils has won two ATP Singles titles; his first title was in 2005 at the Sopot event, and the second in late 2009 at Metz. Some other achievements include his run to
the finals at the 2009 BNP Paribas Masters before he fell to Novak Djokovic. He was also a semi finalist at the 2008 French Open.
Gael Monfils played his first tournament in January – he was seeded third at the Brisbane International event. He had a relatively good run, moving to the quarter finals after defeating Taylor Dent, Florent Serra and American James Blake before falling to
second seed Radek Stepanek in straight sets, 2-6, 1-6. He then withdrew from the Medibank International at Sydney, citing physical reasons.
Monfils was seeded 12th at the Australian Open, and managed to defeat Matthew Ebden and Antonio Veic, before falling in the third round to John Isner, with an end score of 1-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-7 (5-7). He was first seed at the SA Tennis Cup,
scoring defeats against players such as Dominik Hrbaty, Josselin Ouanna and 7th seed Yen-Hsun Lu. In the semi finals, however, he was upset by third seed Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 1-6, 6-7 (1-7).
He went on to the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament as fourth seed in the second week of February, beating Olivier Rochus and up and coming tennis pro Thiemo de Bakker. He lost the quarter finals to sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny. La Monf was seeded 3rd at the
Open 13, and he received a bye in the first round. He fell to Julien Benneteau (eighth seed) at the quarter finals, after a second round defeat of Andreas Seppi.
Monfils reached the semi finals at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open in May as 12th seed, falling to eventual champion Rafael Nadal after defeating Stephane Robert, Phillip Petzschner and Guillermo Garcia Lopez. His next two tournaments were in
his homeland, Open de Nice Cote d'Azur and the French Open. He received a bye at Nice, but lost to Potito Starace in the quarter finals. His result at Roland Garros was disappointing; he lost in the second round, to Fabio Fognini. He received another bye at
the AEGON Championships, but lost in the first match against Rainer Schuettler.
Arguably, Monfils best two tournaments out of the 16 he has so far participated in this year were the Mercedes Cup and last week’s Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships. At the Mercedes Cup, La Monf received another bye and made it to the finals after
defeating Pablo Andujar, Florian Mayer and Daniel Gimeno-Traver. He was upset in two sets 2-6, 2-1 ret, after which he forfeited to fifth seed Albert Montanes.
Monfils also achieved success at the Japan Open, where he was seeded fifth. He was up against, and defeated players Go Soeda, Andreas Seppi, second seed Andy Roddick and Radek Stepanek. He lost the tournament crown to World Number 1, Rafael Nadal, whom he
has beaten once before at Doha 2009, in straight sets. His performance at the 2010 US Open was also up to par, with his run extending to the quarter finals before being beaten by eventual finalist third seed, Novak Djokovic 6-7 (2-7), 1-6, 2-6.
The Frenchman’s most recent participation has been in the first round of the ongoing Shanghai Rolex Masters, where he is 15th seed. He defeated Benjamin Becker in the first round, achieving a victory in straight sets 6-1, 7-5.
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