US Open 2014: Stage conquered, Gael Monfils exits Flushing Meadows
‘All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts…’
- From William Shakespeare’s ‘All the World’s A Stage’
Let alone a lifetime, Gael Monfils plays many parts during the course of just a single tennis match. It’s something that has become a sort of a calling card for the Frenchman, for a match that he’s involved in is almost always heavily infused with a wide range of emotions, moods and tantrums replete with endless monologues and extravagant theatricality.
Packaged in with all of the elements above is also a game high on verve, athleticism and shot-making ability of the highest order. The bigger the stage, the more parts Monfils plays and Thursday night’s quarter-final at the 2014 US Open against Roger Federer was as big a stage as any.
The king meets the jester
Billed as the battle between the king and the court jester, Thursday’s clash between Federer and Monfils witnessed a clash of two contrasting extremes.
Federer – ‘the King’ – a 17-time Grand Slam champion with 80 singles titles to his name and chasing a special 18th Slam in the twilight years of his career. Monfils – the court jester – with no Slam titles to his name yet, the semis being the farthest he has gotten at a major and five titles overall; a man whose talent is never in doubt, but his mental fortitude and balance very much in question through the course of a match. A clash of Federer’s precision shot-making and Monfils’s raw, explosive game.
In a game that ebbed and flowed, had countless heart-in-the-mouth moments, points of brilliance from either player and also bouts of frustration, the king and jester combined to put together one of the most captivating matches of this year’s tournament. And for most of the match, things did not look good for the king.
Monfils sends Federer packing, almost
“When I was down two match points, that’s when I wasn’t feeling so great anymore,” said Federer. “I thought: ‘This is it. This is the last point, man. Just go down fighting, don’t miss an easy shot and let him have it.’
“But I stayed in the match and somehow turned it around.”
Those were Federer’s words at the end of the contest, one in which he managed to extricate himself from a two sets to love down hole, including saving two match points in an utterly tense fourth set, to overcome Monfils and progress to his ninth US Open semi-final. The fifth set was a romp for the Swiss; it had been anything but the rest of the way.
In each of the pair’s previous nine meetings, the person winning the first set had gone on to win the match. For close to four sets it looked like meeting number 10 was heading that same way, in the direction of the enigmatic Frenchman.
Monfils was coming into the match having not lost a set in the previous four rounds and was one of the more impressive outliers to have made their way into the last eight. And he began his duel against Federer in similarly fine fettle, capturing the first break of the match to pocket the first set after a testy early period where he had to stave off break points.
It only got better from then on for the Frenchman as he grew stronger with every passing game as Federer grew ever more frustrated with himself and the way the game was progressing, clearly rattled by the level at which his opponent was playing and seemingly his failure at lifting his game to match those levels. Monfils broke Federer in every set except the decider which gives you an indication of how deep in the water the 5-time champion was.