When Gael Monfils takes on Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the US Open, it won’t be the Frenchman’s first foray into the latter stages of a major.
In fact, it will be Monfils’ sixth slam quarter, his second at the US Open and second of the season.
But you can’t help but notice that there’s something different about his run this fortnight in New York.
For starters, this is the first time Monfils has reached the quarters at a major without dropping a set. It’s also the first time he’s made it this far by beating two top-12 seeds.
Monfils didn’t just reach the last eight – he’s done it the hard way, and with no significant mid-match meltdowns.
Monfils is a dichotomy. He’s the ultimate entertainer and is tennis’ top athlete, exhibiting movements fit for a Cirque du Soleil Vegas show.
But he’s also one of the sport’s top under-achievers. There’s an entire world of tennis fans, players and coaches who are forever frustrated by the mysterious ways of LaMonf.
The 28-year-old Frenchman has long confessed he prioritises life over tennis. Fun over suffering. Pleasure over pain.
A philosophy that may have brought him on-court success in past eras, but never in this one, where the top guys are uber-professional robots.
He constantly loses concentration during matches and sometimes bizarrely alternates between tanking and dominating (remember the fourth set against Fabio Fognini in Paris this year and the fifth against Murray?).
Monfils is always many things at once. He’s an acrobat, an artist (I once watched him play the piano at 2am in a hotel lobby), a philosopher, a fighter, a child, a joker… he is rarely just a tennis player trying to win a match.
He will play well at a tournament he feels attached to, and not even try at a tournament he loathes.
Which is why his home slam is his most successful, followed by the US Open, where he says he finds a strong connection with the African American community he was introduced to by his former physio in the Bronx.
Monfils has been sans coach for over a year and a half now, and it is within this period that he has risen from as low as 99 in the rankings to his current position, hovering around 20. Is there even a coach who can understand and guide Monfils? Roger Rasheed succeeded for a while but it didn’t last.
Rasheed’s current student, Grigor Dimitrov, was the latest victim of Monfils’ exploits. In that match, we saw a Monfils who was focused on winning. He says he got lucky in getting that win, but he’s simply shying away from admitting one fact – that perhaps finally, and with no one by his side, he is maturing. If true, there’s no stopping him.
