Coach Patrick Mouratoglou is a big fan of Gael Monfils’ game as he says the Frenchman is one of the few that bring craziness and make tennis more spectacular. On Saturday, Monfils handed a 7-5 7-6 (4) 6-3 loss to Miomir Kecmanovic to reach the Australian Open quarterfinal.
“Gael is among the very few who bring craziness and make our sport more spectacular,” Mouratoglou tweeted. Kecmanovic, who was projected to play Novak Djokovic in the first round, is coached by David Nalbandian.
Mouratoglou thinks Kecmanovic’s game now resembles the one of his coach. “It may sounds cliché but I see some Nalbandian in Kecmanovic’s game now. The way he returns and the very fast hand acceleration just before the contact point!” Mouratoglou tweeted during the Monfils and Kecmanovic match.
Monfils thrilled with his run
After a rough 2021 season, Monfils won Adelaide in his first tournament of the season and now has been through to the Australian Open quarterfinal. “It’s been a long journey for me and I’m quite happy, but it’s not finished,” Monfils said.
“I will try to play this quarter-final not like the last time, I will try to be better. It’s an achievement but we’re not quite finished yet”. The first set could have easily gone Kecmanovic’s way but Monfils saved three consecutive break points in the 11th game before claiming the first break of the match in the 12th game.
“It was very tough, he played extremely fast on both sides,” said Monfils. “I tried to be very aggressive today, tried to not let him dictate the points. I served quite well, and then it was just battling, battling, hanging in there”.
Monfils plays next Matteo Berrettini, who beat Pablo Carreno Busta in the last match of the day. “Both are extremely good,” said Monfils. “Matteo, I lost to him in the quarter-final of the [2019] US Open 7-6 in the fifth, and Pablo beat me in a semi-final [Metz] last year, so it’s going to be fun, a great match, but I will be ready for them”.
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here