He realized his dream. Falling back to 394th place in the ATP ranking, Gaël Monfils was able to participate in this Roland-Garros 2023 thanks to his protected ranking, without even going through the qualifications. He had inherited a complicated first round with a match against the Argentinian Sebastian Baez, 42nd player in the world, and 22-year-old pure earthling.
Only Gaël Monfils can do this. A victory in five sets and nearly four hours of play in this first round of Roland-Garros 2023 to qualify. However, it is the Argentinian who takes the lead during this meeting with the victory of the first round. But the Frenchman does not abdicate. Never. Gets up and wins the next two sets to lead two sets to one.
LIVE – Roland-Garros 2023: breathtaking, Gaël makes Monfils and qualifies after a marathon of five sets
Increasingly tired after two hours of play, the 36-year-old veteran let go completely in the fourth set. A round won 6-1 in half an hour of play by the Argentinian. Expeditious. We then say to ourselves that it is folded for the French. History is written. Once again. And what follows proves us right.
Sebastian Baez unfolds his tennis a little more. 3-0 after eight minutes, then 4-0. The Frenchman even has to save balls from five games to zero. But impossible is not Gaël Monfils. “It may be weird but at 3-0 (for Baez), I was no longer in the game, explains the French at the microphone of Prime Video after his victory. I was less focused on the match and carried by the public. Then I thought of my daughter, who is here in Paris today, and who has never seen me win.
The former French No. 1 then began a fabulous comeback of which he alone had the secret. He recovers at 4-4 before losing the ninth game of this fifth set. Carried by a public from Philippe-Chatrier at least as much in a trance as the player, Gaël Monfils picks up again at 5-5, before resuming his face-off and leading for the first time in this last set.
But there will be no decisive game. The Parisian wins his opponent’s face-off one last time to win 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 in 3h47 of play. A match that Gaël Monfils finished on the kneecaps. Limping during the last games, certainly steeped in cramps, before collapsing on the ground of the center court and ending in tears in front of this public who carried him so much. “It was you who did it, not me” explains the Frenchman after his victory, his eyes turned towards “his” public.
At 36, the one who played his first Roland-Garros in 2005 was like a kid after this success which is so expensive. “We are going to have a great party tonight,” he confided. Gaël Monfils, who had the luxury of singing La Marseillaise in the middle of a match with his supporters, enjoyed a crowd bath, before facing the Dane Holger Rune in the second round. A last look at the public before dedicating this match to Skaï, his daughter, on the camera, and celebrating his return to Parisian soil as it should be.
