Injured Gael Monfils' ranking on a slope in 2012 – Tennis Special
French player, Gael Monfils, is one of the most athletic players on the ATP World Tour, having attained a brilliant level of fitness. Sometimes he is compared to Rafael Nadal, when he tries to reach every ball during a rally and
almost all of the times he succeeds in at least returning it across the net.
However, Monfils’ ranking is going down with every passing week in recent months. At first, a poor run of form put a bad effect on his position and now a lay off due to injury has thrown him at his lowest ranking in recent years.
The Trelex, Switzerland resident has missed most part of this season due to right knee injury. In the running week, Monfils has gone down nine places to the 28th spot in Rankings.
Monfils, who turned professional at a young age of 17 years, captured his first title in Sopot in 2005. Almost one year back, Monfils was at the top of his form. The French player attained his career best ranking of number seven
in July 2011. Highlight of his career is the time when he reached the semi-finals at his home Grand Slam, French Open, in 2008.
The Frenchman remained in the top 10 for almost all of 2011 and even finished the year among the 10 best players on the ATP World Tour. However, some bad performances at the end of the season meant that he started 2012 ranked 16th.
Nevertheless, Monfils made a superb start in this year. Playing his first tournament of the season, the 6ft 4in tall stunned the then world number two, Rafael Nadal, in the semi-finals of the Qatar ExxonMobil Open. He could not retain the high level of his
game, losing compatriot, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the final.
Monfils could not give a good performance at the first Grand Slam of the season, Australian Open, as he barely defeated two low ranked players, Marinko Matosevic and Thomaz Bellucci, in the first and second round respectively.
That was all for the French player, as he was upset by Kazakhstan’s 92nd ranked contestant at that time, Mikhail Kukushkin, in the round of 32.
After that he featured at his home event of Open Sud de France and gave a good performance to qualify for the title match but he injured his right knee in the semis. That moment started bad times for Monfils, as he has failed to
give his best since then. Once again luck did not favour him, as he lost to Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych in three sets in final. That was his last commendable result, because he failed to reach even the quarter-finals of any tournament he participated in
later on.
Monfils lost in the round of 32 at Sony Ericsson Open and Internazionali BNL d’Italia, going down in the round of 16 at Mutua Madrid Open and Open de Nice Côte d’Azur. The 25-year-old has not participated in an event after that,
missing the French Open, Wimbledon and London Olympics. Though, it is heard that he has regained fitness and will make a comeback at the Winston-Salem Open later in this month. It is expected that Monfils will take part in the US Open.
The French star would need some time to find his form but he is so talented that it can be anticipated from him that he would not wait for long to come back into the top 15 of world rankings.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: