Player FeaturesFrenchman into the fourth round of the Australian Open
January 18, 2025
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Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina are both into the second week at Melbourne Park. By ATP Staff
Gael Monfils’ reaction Saturday said it all.
The 38-year-old had just upset fourth seed Taylor Fritz in the third round of the Australian Open, becoming the third-oldest player (behind Ken Rosewall twice) to defeat a top-five opponent at a major in the history of the PIF ATP Rankings (since 1973). What did he do? Break out into a dance.
“It was very natural. I wanted to dance, so I danced,” Monfils later told his former coach, Roger Rasheed, in an interview. “It was a way for me to express my happiness.”
Happy is a good word to describe Monfils’ state right now. His smile spoke for itself as he shimmied to the net to shake hands with Fritz, with the crowd delighted by the result.
“I keep playing for those matches. Play a big player, big stadium, good crowd, good energy,” Monfils said. “When you’re 38 years old, is what I want. I had it. I was very fortunate to win it.”
That moment of joy remained with the Frenchman. Well after the match, when Monfils was preparing to meet with the media, he was joking around with American Frances Tiafoe just inside the locker room doors. It is fitting given Monfils and Tiafoe are two of the biggest crowd favourites on the ATP Tour.
As Monfils opened the door to head upstairs for his press conference and broadcast interviews, waiting for the former No. 6 in the PIF ATP Rankings was wife Elina Svitolina, who was getting ready for her own third-round match at Melbourne Park.
The 38-year-old departed the Australian Open players’ area to walk towards the elevator to the media level and passed by WTA player Taylor Townsend, enjoying a quick laugh with the American lefty, then walked by the man he had just defeated, Fritz.
There is plenty of hype around Monfils in Australia. Before arriving, he triumphed in Auckland to become the oldest man to claim a tour-level trophy since 1977. Just how far can he go? Does the Frenchman think he could win the tournament?
“That’s your dream, I guess, to win a Slam. I’ll tell you my dream,” Monfils said. “My dream is to have an unbelievable family. Tennis is cool. Of course, you want to have goals, dreams, whatever. But my dream is out there.”
All of the 13-time ATP Tour champion’s results are a bonus for him, though. Monfils has previously pointed out that his dream was to crack the world’s Top 10. He achieved that, has competed on the world’s biggest stages, won 574 tour-level matches and earned nearly $24 million in career prize money.
Playing in front of and entertaining fans thrills Monfils still. Having fun makes him happy.
“A couple of years ago I wasn’t sure about tennis anymore,” Monfils told ESPN’s Chris McKendry. But Svitolina played a big part in helping push him forward.
“Let’s go Gael, let’s go! Let’s go Gael, let’s go!”
French fans chanted that phrase repeatedly from below the ESPN studio, and Monfils repaid the people with a grateful wave from ESPN.
The fans extend beyond the crowd, too. Many players in the locker room grew up watching the Frenchman. An example is his next opponent, Ben Shelton.
“There’s this one highlight tape I feel like everyone has watched on YouTube that’s just nuts. For me it’s probably the greatest tennis highlight tape of all time. It’s Gael, just a lot of athletic plays,” Shelton said. “One of them being, I think it was at Roland Garros when he dove for that overhead and then ended up winning the point. He was going nuts.
“So for me if there’s one guy in all of sports you’re, like, ‘That guy has the greatest mixtape’… for me it’s Gael Monfils.”
In his various interviews, Monfils spoke about the importance of hard work, belief and his “great team”. That has helped him age like fine wine, as Rasheed later joked with him.
Monfils is also fully aware of how well he is playing at the moment. Rasheed asked the No. 32 player in the PIF ATP Live Rankings about his tie-break performance against Fritz, losing just one point.
“Flawless. Flawless,” Monfils said with a big smile.
But perhaps part of what is allowing him to perform so well is that he does not need a certain result to be happy. Monfils spoke with great delight about his daughter Skaï and his family overall.
The last request Monfils fulfilled was a selfie video with the ATP Tour. After a whirlwind of a day, the fans’ favourite spoke in his native French.
“Thank you everybody! I hope you all speak French and see you all in the second week. See you soon!”
“Subtitles!” Monfils said after stopping the video.
The two-time Australian Open quarter-finalist then returned downstairs quickly to head to his wife’s match. Svitolina rallied for a three-set victory and after departing Margaret Court Arena, the same court her husband had won on just hours before, Monfils was waiting to take her bag and walk off into the night.
