Gael Monfils confident of a successful 2015 season

Sport360 staff 07:50 01/12/2014
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  • Upbeat: Gael Monfils confident of improving in 2015

    Gael Monfils said yesterday he was confident of playing strongly in the tour next year after beating Roger Federer at the Davis Cup and winning three times at the fast-paced inaugural International Pre­mier Tennis League tournament in the Philippines.

    Monfils defeated world No2 Federer, despite France eventually losing its Davis Cup title bid against Switzerland last week.

    The Frenchman then rushed to Manila to beat world No6 Andy Murray and Australian Lleyton Hewitt at the IPTL.

    “I expect that I can play good matches like these. I have good wins and so I expect that would give me more motivation to be ready for 2015,” he told reporters as the Manila leg of the IPTL tour ended yesterday.

    “Even with the jet lag here I am still strong and I can feel that I can play tough. I can tell, and you can see, I’ll be tough to beat in 2015.”

    The crowd favourite Monfils, the world No18, clowned his way to dispatching Hewitt on Friday and Murray on Saturday in one-set matches.

    World No9 Marin Cilic retired yesterday while trailing Monfils 1-2, and the 28-year-old French­man completed the job against sub­stitute Malek Jaziri, 6-3.

    “I love this format,” Monfils said of the team-oriented event, which he said evoked the atmosphere of a Davis Cup tie.

    IPTL ties consist of five one-set matches with no advantages. The first to six games wins and a 5-5 tie is broken by a five-minute shoot­out. Players must serve within 20 seconds or lose the point.

    Monfils won the crowd’s support with hip-hop dances to celebrate winning points, basketball-style, no-look drop shots, and goalkeep­er-worthy dives to retrieve seem­ingly lost causes.

    “I think it’s genetic,” Monfils told reporters when asked where he learned the moves.

    “I play tennis, soccer, basketball and dance hip-hop, so you know…” he added.

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