“Tennis is cool, but my dream is out there”: Monfils dancing to the beat of his own drum in Melbourne
Monfils is causing a stir at the Australian Open, where he eliminated the world’s fourth-best player. But at 38 years old, he is rather amused by the superlatives he arouses.
(Julien Nouet / Psnewz)
It was after his first-round victory over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. A journalist asked Gaël Monfils if he still had the dream of winning a Grand Slam tournament. “I’ll give a general answer if you don’t mind. In life, you have to dream. And I have many dreams.”
One possible interpretation of this vague yet well-meaning response was the following: yes, Monfils has not given up on winning a major. But at 38 years old and with most of his career behind him, he was not going to make the mistake of stating it publicly and dragging himself through such attention at an age when he is counting his remaining days in career.
Five days later, Monfils is still in the running at the Australian Open. He schooled world No 4 Taylor Fritz to the point of ejecting him from the draw. It is statistically the biggest victory of his career in a major. “If he plays like that, he will be hard to beat for everyone,” the Californian had said afterwards, when asked about the real level of play of the world No 41.
Monfils knows the media too well not to have seen the question coming. He, the champion of match-by-match, has this time chosen to reveal himself.
“My dream is to be old and with a lot of kids and healthy.”
The journalist who asked the new question about his sporting ambitions pretended not to believe it. “To be honest with you, is not even a dream to win the tournament. That’s your dream, I guess, to win a slam. I tell you my dream. My dream is to have an unbelievable family. Tennis is cool. Of course, you want to have goal, dream, whatever. But my dream is out there..”
Following in the footsteps of Federer
On Saturday, from his hotel room, Monfils and his wife Elina Svitolina – also the winner against the world No 4, on the same court, on the same day – will have their two-year-old daughter on video from their hotel in central Melbourne. “We’re going to talk about everything except my victory. She drew me a picture. And she was invited to a little party. That’s what we’re going to talk about.”
That’s how it was in the corridors of Melbourne Park after what was surely the most spectacular and emotionally charged match of the first week, with Daniil Medvedev vs Learner Tien . While commentators and fans on social media were discussing all the barriers broken down by La Monf, the Frenchman’s sole obsession was to bring his masterpiece back to its true value: a nice moment of sport.
“To be honest, I don’t look at the stats” smiled the only 38-year-old since 1991 to find himself in the second week of a Grand Slam, with the exception of Roger Federer.
To have a chance of connecting with Monfils on Saturday, you had to want to be funny. His little celebration dance? “It was totally spontaneous. I wanted to do it and I did it. It’s cool.” Is he one of the best athletes on the circuit? “I can say that I’m the best athlete on the circuit… among 38-year-olds.”
If Monfils gives credence to what he has been saying since the beginning of the week – he feels lucky, he is enjoying the fruits of his labor, he is riding the wave of a good offseason – he lets others take themselves seriously for him. And this clinically sums up Monfils’ tennis reality in January 2025.
“Playing the way I played today, I beat most players,” Fritz said. “I’m not going to dwell on it for too long. He was just too good.” Neither a dream maker nor a dream crusher, Monfils has a strange status in Melbourne, and carries with him all the reasons why people get up at night to watch tennis.
