It’s a casual discussion in the context of a dinner at a restaurant between three people who have known each other and have known each other for many years. Before the return of the UTS, the next edition of which will take place from September 15 to 17 in Frankfurt, Gaël Monfils, Benoît Paire and Patrick Mouratoglou addressed many subjects in an exciting long-term format. Among the many topics raised, the inevitable question that accompanied the career of the “Quatre Mousquetaires” of French tennis: why did Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon, Richard Gasquet or Gaël Monfils never manage to win a Grand Slam? ?
To this question, the Parisian has a very simple answer: “the guys were stronger than us”. “Guys” is obviously this “Big 4” embodied by Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. “People always tell you, ‘Potentially, you could have done that.’ With ifs, ifs, ifs in each sentence. But we take a potential of something that does not exist, because we do not know you”, he explains.
This question, obviously, Monfils ended up getting tired of it. Because the general public did not have all the keys to analysis in their eyes: “Sometimes people are a little aggressive with me, saying to me: ‘You could have won a Grand Slam title with the physique that you’ ah, you’re a wanker…’ I say, ‘OK, so you think that just because I have a big physique, that makes me a great player who should have won a Grand Slam title? don’t see how I worked my backhand, my volley…'”
Tomorrow, you make me play five sets against Rafa…
“La Monf” explains that it is precisely thanks to them that he fueled in training to get as close as possible. But, intrinsically, he is convinced: there was a gap between the Big 4 and the rest of the world. Was he convinced of that after his first failures against them? No, listening to it.
“Inwardly, I think they are stronger for two reasons, he said. Already, because they are stronger than me mentally. It’s not that they don’t ‘wet’ (have fear, editor’s note) etc… And I think they are stronger mentally, because they are stronger physically. Physically, it’s huge. Tomorrow, you make me play five sets against Rafa, he will have this management to not not get burned and better manage myself. I know my limit, and the pace he imposes is super high. I can hold on for a match, but even if I win, after I’m not sure I can hold out against Roger or Novak in the next laps. I think that was a big hurdle.”
Gaël Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet in Guadeloupe for the 1st round of the Davis Cup against Canada in 2016
Credit: Getty Images
However, he swears, he has never approached a match against one of them in the shoes of an expiatory victim. “When I enter the court, I have no doubts about my ability to beat them, I go there to win, he concludes. And, apart from Novak, I have beaten them on occasion. But I make this observation which is obvious: they have won lots of Grand Slam titles, me none”.
In 2020, during a Twitch live which brought together Monfils, Gasquet, Tsonga and Simon, Manceau had the same explanation: “We have the three best players of all time who have played the fifteen years we have played. It was not easy to be compared to them, we were 5th, 6th, 7th… We all pushed our tennis to the maximum of what we could do at a certain moment, we have nothing to be ashamed of. what we did”.
“Even on a bathroom mat, Djoko, Federer and Nadal would still win”
2023-09-06 22:00:43
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