144 Facts About Monfils

Gael Sebastien Monfils is a French professional tennis player.

Monfils has been ranked as high as world No 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, which he achieved in November 2016.

Monfils has won eleven ATP Tour singles titles and been runner-up twenty-two times, and has reached at least one ATP Tour singles final every year since 2005.

Gael Sebastien Monfils was born on 1 September 1986 in Paris, where he was raised.

Monfils's father Rufin Monfils is from Guadeloupe and is a former pro football player and France Telecom employee.

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Monfils played his first junior match in January 2002 at the age of 15 at a grade 4 tournament in Sweden.

In 2002, Monfils finished runner-up at the Dutch Junior Open and won the German Junior Open.

Monfils ended the year ranked as the No 4 junior in the world and represented France in the Junior Davis Cup.

Monfils got off to a positive start in 2003 and earned his first career ATP point at the France Futures No 13 by reaching the second round.

Monfils reached the second round at the France Futures No 14, Egypt Futures No 2 and the Spain Futures No 28.

Monfils reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open juniors tournament and won the doubles title at the Victorian Junior Championships.

Monfils was No 21 in junior rankings at the end of the year.

Monfils improved his ATP Entry Ranking by over 700 positions.

Monfils won junior titles at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.

Monfils did not drop a set in Australia and lost one set each at the French Open and Wimbledon.

Monfils won the LTA International Junior Championship in Roehampton.

Monfils reached the semifinals at the Australian Open and the quarterfinals at the French Open.

Monfils solely played ITF Futures events from early 2003 to mid 2004 winning two titles.

Monfils made his ATP debut at the 2004 Open de Moselle after receiving a wildcard into the main draw where he defeated 2nd seed Xavier Malisse in the first round for his first ever ATP win.

Monfils followed this up with another victory over Olivier Patience in the second round to reach the quarterfinals where he lost to fellow wildcard and junior and eventual finalist Richard Gasquet in straight sets.

Monfils finished the year as the No 3 Frenchman, behind only world No 16 Richard Gasquet and world No 26 Sebastien Grosjean.

Monfils was given a wildcard into the doubles event, but became more interested and inquired about getting a singles wildcard into the main draw.

Monfils competed in the main draw of this paddle tennis tournament and surprised everyone when he ousted world No 1 paddle tennis player Scott Freedman and eventually went on to win the whole tournament.

Monfils then entered the Hamburg Masters event, where he lost in straight sets to fellow teenager Andy Murray in the first round.

Monfils then faced his toughest opponent yet, American James Blake.

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Monfils then entered the Stella Artois Championships, where he won his first-round match against Jurgen Melzer.

Monfils then played the American Bobby Reynolds and won in straight sets.

Monfils's quarterfinal draw was with James Blake, whom he had met earlier at the French Open.

At Wimbledon, Monfils suffered a surprising first-round exit when defeated by Igor Kunitsyn.

Monfils won the first set, but ended up losing the next three.

At the 2007 Australian Open, Monfils lost to his compatriot Richard Gasquet in the third round in four sets.

Monfils had a good run in Poertschach as a warm-up for the French Open, but lost in the final against Juan Monaco of Argentina in straight sets.

Monfils lost in the third round of the French Open to David Nalbandian in a four-set match.

At Wimbledon, Monfils reached the third round without dropping a set, where he lost to Nikolay Davydenko, the sixth seed, in straight sets.

In July, Monfils made it to the semifinals of the 2007 Legg Mason Tennis Classic, before losing to American John Isner in three tiebreaks.

Monfils withdrew from the 2007 US Open with a hamstring injury.

Monfils was forced to withdraw from the 2008 Australian Open due to the same injury.

At the 2008 French Open, Monfils reached a semifinals berth for the first time at any Grand Slam, becoming the first Frenchman to reach the semifinals since 2001.

Monfils was defeated by top seed Roger Federer in four sets.

Monfils was selected by France to play at the Olympics in Beijing, where he lost to third seed Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

At the 2008 US Open, Monfils lost in the fourth round to Mardy Fish in straight sets, after having previously defeated former world No 3 David Nalbandian, in straight sets.

At the Thailand Open, Monfils reached the semifinals, losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in two sets.

Monfils lost in the final of the BA-CA Tennis Trophy in straight sets to Philipp Petzschner in the final.

Monfils played his first tournament at the Qatar Open and caused a two-set upset in the quarterfinals against Rafael Nadal.

Monfils lost to finalist Andy Roddick in three sets, after being up a break in the first set and losing it.

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At the 2009 Australian Open, Monfils lost to fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon in the fourth round, retiring due to a wrist injury.

Monfils competed at the 2009 Monte Carlo Masters, losing in the first round to Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets.

Monfils then completed another straight-set victory in the second round by overcoming Victor Crivoi.

Against Melzer, Monfils made one of the most spectacular plays of the tournament, hitting a diving shot back to Melzer, sliding to save another point of Melzer and then putting the point away.

Monfils then played a much-anticipated fourth-round match against Andy Roddick, who made 28 unforced errors en route to losing to Monfils in straight sets.

Monfils then lost, as in the previous year, to Roger Federer, this time in the quarterfinals.

Monfils then lost to qualifier Juan Carlos Ferrero in his second match, ending his Masters tournament campaign.

At the Japan Open, Monfils reached the semifinal stage, losing to eventual champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Monfils lost the first set and then was forced to retire with a back injury.

At the 2009 Paris Masters, Monfils made his first Masters final, where was defeated by Novak Djokovic.

Monfils began his season at the Brisbane International, where he was seeded third.

Monfils lost to defending champion, Czech Radek Stepanek in the semifinals.

Monfils withdrew from the Medibank International in Sydney, Australia, citing a shoulder injury.

At the 2010 Australian Open, Monfils lost in the round of 32 to John Isner in four sets.

Monfils was the first seed at the SA Tennis Open, where he lost in the semifinals to Feliciano Lopez.

Monfils then played in the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, where he fell in the quarterfinals to the eventual runner-up, Russian Mikhail Youzhny in three sets.

Monfils fell in the quarterfinals at the 2010 Open 13 in Marseille, France, as the third seed to Julien Benneteau in straight sets.

Monfils withdrew from three consecutive Masters 1000 events – the Sony Ericsson Open, the 2010 Monte Carlo Masters and the 2010 Rome Masters.

Monfils was set to return at the Estoril Open and receive a wildcard, but withdrew due to a stomach injury.

Monfils finally made his return at the 2010 Madrid Masters and reached the quarterfinals without losing a set, where he lost to third seed Rafael Nadal.

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Monfils then played at the Open de Nice Cote d'Azur in Nice, France, where he lost in the quarterfinals to Potito Starace.

Monfils was up two sets and a break, before being upset by Fabio Fognini in a match over two days.

Monfils eventually lost to grass-court specialist and former Wimbledon champion Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets.

Monfils was forced to retire in the final against Albert Montanes.

Monfils is the first Frenchman to make the US Open quarterfinals since Arnaud Clement in 2000.

Monfils was runner-up at the Rakuten Japan Open, losing to Rafael Nadal in two sets.

At the Open Sud de France, Monfils won his third tournament, defeating Ivan Ljubicic in three sets.

Monfils was seeded twelfth at the 2010 Paris Masters and successfully reached the final for the second consecutive year, this time scoring three Top 10 wins en route to doing so.

Monfils started 2011 at the AAMI Kooyong Classic where, in the final, he lost to Australian and former world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt.

At the 2011 French Open, Monfils defeated seventh seed David Ferrer in five sets to reach the quarterfinals.

Monfils defeated Matthias Bachinger and Grega Zemlja before falling in the third round to Lukasz Kubot of Poland in four sets.

Monfils reached the quarterfinals of both the 2011 Canadian Masters and the Cincinnati Masters, where he lost to Novak Djokovic.

At the 2012 Australian Open, Monfils progressed to the third round before bowing out to Mikhail Kukushkin in five sets.

Monfils was suffering from a back injury he received in the previous round.

Monfils reached the third round of the 2012 Madrid Masters, again losing to Berdych.

Monfils attempted another comeback with the beginning of the 2013 season in Doha, where he was able to reach the quarterfinals.

Monfils reached the semifinals in Auckland, being eliminated by David Ferrer.

Monfils made it to the third round of the 2013 Australian Open, but was defeated there by compatriot Gilles Simon.

Monfils then played in Montpellier, where he was defeated in the second round by Richard Gasquet.

Monfils received a wildcard into Rotterdam, but was defeated in the first round by Juan Martin del Potro.

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Monfils received a wildcard for the 2013 French Open after a good clay season with a win at the Bordeaux Challenger and a final at the Nice ATP tournament, he upset Berdych in the first round of the French Open, who was seeded fifth.

Monfils continued his quest by defeating Ernests Gulbis in round two.

Monfils reached the final in Winston-Salem, but bowed out to Austria's Jurgen Melzer in the second set due to an unspecified injury, securing the championship for Melzer.

Monfils reached his third final in Doha and lost to Rafael Nadal in three sets.

Monfils was beaten by Nadal in the third round of the 2014 Australian Open.

Monfils hurt his wrist in a match against Grigor Dimitrov and did not play again until the 2014 French Open, where he made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Andy Murray.

At the 2014 US Open, Monfils reached the quarterfinals for a second time and just narrowly missed reaching his second Grand Slam semifinal when he lost to Roger Federer in five sets, despite leading by two sets to love and holding two match points against his serve in the fourth set.

Monfils played his first tournament at the 2015 Australian Open.

Monfils defeated Lucas Pouille in 5 sets in the first round before being ousted against Jerzy Janowicz in another five setter.

Monfils reached the final of the Open 13 in Marseille, that of which saw him lose to Gilles Simon.

Monfils then lost in the round of 16 to Roger Federer in four sets.

Monfils was however, able to participate at Wimbledon, defeating Pablo Carreno Busta and Adrian Mannarino before again losing to Gilles Simon in the third round in five sets.

Monfils said after the match he got disturbed when the crowd started to whistle at his opponent.

Monfils started the 2016 season by entering the 2016 Australian Open where he was seeded twenty-third, Monfils took advantage of a draw which opened up in his section to reach the singles quarterfinals of the Australian Open for the first time.

Monfils then reached a third career ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final and second final of 2016 in Monte Carlo, that of which saw him defeat countryman and world No 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semifinals en route, before ultimately losing in the final to the eight-time Monte Carlo Masters champion Rafael Nadal in three sets.

Monfils then looked to again replicate this form at the next two clay-court ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments – the 2016 Madrid Masters and the 2016 Rome Masters.

Monfils caught a viral infection during his stay in Madrid and, as a result, ended up losing in the second round to Pablo Cuevas.

In late August, Monfils entered the 2016 US Open seeded tenth and reached the semifinals without dropping a set, defeating prominent past and present players on the tour Gilles Muller, Jan Satral, Nicolas Almagro, Marcos Baghdatis and Lucas Pouille en route.

Monfils eventually lost a controversial match to Djokovic in four sets.

Monfils then entered the Shanghai Masters seeded sixth and received a bye into the second round, where he defeated Kevin Anderson in straight sets.

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Whole of 2017, Monfils only managed to progress beyond the round of 16 of the singles main draw in just three ATP World Tour tournaments – the 2017 Open 13, the 2017 Dubai Tennis Championships and the 2017 Aegon International Eastbourne.

Monfils saw his year-end position in the ATP singles rankings slip to world No 46 as he struggled with his fitness in 2017.

Monfils was forced to withdraw from six tournaments because of various ailments and concluded his season after losing in the third round of the 2017 US Open, citing a right knee injury.

Monfils won his seventh ATP World Tour singles title at the 2018 Qatar Open.

Monfils had lost his previous three Qatar Open singles finals.

Monfils then made the semifinals of the 2018 Argentina Open, upsetting seventh seed Pablo Cuevas in the first round before being handily defeated by Dominic Thiem in the semifinals.

In round one, Monfils completed a significant comeback to beat Horacio Zeballos, saving one match point in the process with a booming forehand.

Monfils lost to Diego Schwartzman, the eventual champion, in the quarterfinals.

Later in the year, Monfils finally made the fourth round of Wimbledon for the first time in his career, losing to Kevin Anderson.

Monfils won the eighth ATP Tour singles title of his career at the Rotterdam Open, defeating Stan Wawrinka in a three-set final.

Monfils lost in a five set battle to the 24th seed Matteo Berrettini.

Monfils finished the year in the top 10 at World No 10 since February 2017.

Monfils won his second title of the year at the Rotterdam Open, successfully defending his title by defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final.

Monfils lost in the first round of the 2021 Australian Open to Emil Ruusuvuori in five sets.

Monfils picked up his first win in over a year in Lyon, beating lucky loser Thiago Seyboth Wild in straight sets.

In Belgrade's second tournament, Monfils lost to qualifier Roberto Carballes Baena in a third set tie-break.

At the French Open, Monfils defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas in 4 sets, after saving a set point in the second set tie-break.

At the 2021 Halle Open, Monfils continued to struggle as he lost in the opening round to Lloyd Harris.

Monfils lost in the opening round again, this time to qualifier Max Purcell.

At the 2021 Canada Masters 1000, Monfils made his first quarterfinal appearance of the year after defeating John Millman and Frances Tiafoe.

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Gael Monfils became the 11th active player to reach 500 singles match wins.

Monfils made his first semifinal of the year at the 2021 Moselle Open.

Monfils lost in the semifinals to 2nd seed Pablo Carreno Busta in straight sets.

Monfils pulled out of the second tournament with a neck injury against lucky loser Thiago Monteiro after being a break down in the third set.

At the Australian Open, Monfils defeated Federico Coria, Alexander Bublik, 16th seed Cristian Garin and Miomir Kecmanovic to reach his first quarterfinal at the Australian Open since 2016, and first quarterfinal at any major since the 2019 US Open.

Monfils is usually described as a baseliner who uses placement and consistency to beat his opponents.

Monfils is well known for his athleticism and his court coverage, regularly using slides to retrieve balls, even on hard courts.

Monfils has garnered a reputation for showmanship and high-risk shotmaking throughout his career.

Monfils was sponsored by Nike for clothes and shoes but changed to K-Swiss in 2010.

Monfils was sponsored by Head for racquets but changed to Prince in 2009 and Wilson in 2012.

At the start of the 2022 season, Monfils switched his apparel and racquet sponsors to the French brand Decathlon's tennis line, Artengo.

Monfils is nicknamed "La Monf", or occasionally "Sliderman" due to his unusual sliding technique, especially on clay surfaces.

Monfils was considered an athletic prodigy at school and won the French under-13 and under-14 100m championships.

Monfils's coach is on record as saying that Monfils could have made the Olympic 100m final, such was his talent.

Monfils was coached by countryman and former ATP pro Thierry Champion but they parted company in September 2006.

Monfils announced a partnership with a new coach, Tarik Benhabiles, in May 2007.

In 2011, Monfils parted ways with Rasheed and announced that his fitness coach, Patrick Chamagne would take the reins as his new full-time coach.

Monfils appeared in the music video for "Hello" by Martin Solveig and Dragonette.

On 15 May 2022, Svitolina and Monfils announced they were expecting their first child together, a girl.