Monfils outduels fellow Frenchman in first-round match for the ages

Gael Monfils of France plays a forehand return to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday

The pragmatic pro in Gael Monfils would like to have finished off his first-round win in straight sets against up-and-coming fellow Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard at the Australian Open.

The entertainer’s instinct in him got a lot of value out of clinching it in five.

In a duel between the 38-year-old Monfils and 21-year-old Mpetshi Perricard, it was age, experience and endurance that outweighed power and youth on yesterday — helping nullify one of the biggest serves in tennis.

Days after Monfils became the oldest player to win an ATP Tour title by beating Zizou Bergs the final in Auckland, New Zealand, Monfils wasted match points in the third set and on Mpetshi Perricard’s serve in the fifth before finally closing out a 7-6 (7), 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-7 (5), 6-4 victory.

Monfils said he usually tries to avoid thinking about age gaps with competitors, “but I can tell you that tomorrow morning I will be (feeling) more 48 than 38.”

“I know … I can sometimes have the double of the age of the guy. I have, yeah, I think 21 years of career, and he’s 21 years old, Giovanni,” he added. “Of course numbers are there, but I’m fighting, so I try not to put any number in my head.”

Monfils and Mpetshi Perricard entered the match at opposite ends of the career spectrum, but share a passion for their sport. Both use between-the-legs shots at times during rallies — in one case, both in the same rally in the fourth-set tiebreaker — and sometimes take the unconventional approach to setting up points.

With a career record of 34-18 at the Australian Open, where he reached the quarterfinals in 2016 and 2022, Monfils had the advantage against a player on debut at Melbourne Park.

Mpetshi Perricard had never advanced beyond the first round at any major other than Wimbledon (where he reached the fourth round as a lucky loser last year) but he was seeded 30th after a breakout year in 2024 that included two titles.

Monfils, who has won more Grand Slam singles matches than any other French man, now also has a 20-19 win-loss record in five-set matches.

He didn’t face a break point against Mpetshi Perricard in five sets, and coped with what is widely regarded as the best second-serve in tennis. He converted two of 12 break-point chances.

But he also had 18 double-faults, including one when he was serving for the match in the third set, and another on a match point in the third-set tiebreaker that let his younger rival back into the match, and extended it by 1 1/2 hours.

Afterwards, the pair cooled down and stretched together in the locker room.

“Sometimes on the bench I say to myself, ‘He is not 38,” Mpetshi Perricard said. “Physically I don’t think he’s 38, but yeah, I mean, I’ll have to be better on some part to win this kind of match. I’m still young. I still can learn.”

There were some other dramatic five-setters, with fifth-seeded and tempestuous Daniil Medvedev, a former U.S. Open champion and three-time finalist in Australia, edging Grand Slam rookie Kasidit Samrej 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 and No. 13 Holger Rune beating Zhang Zhizhen 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.

No. 4 Taylor Fritz, runner-up at the U.S. Open and the ATP Finals and part of the U.S. team that won the United Cup last week, needed less than two hours for a 6-2, 6-0, 6-3 win over Jenson Brooksby.

No. 8 Emma Navarro needed 3 hours and 20 minutes and rallied from 5-3 down in the third set to beat fellow American Peyton Stearns 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-5 in the women’s first round.

By contrast, sixth-seeded Elena Rybakina overpowered 16-year-old Emerson Jones 6-1, 6-1 and No. 9 Daria Kasatkina advanced in straight sets.

Navarro, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open last year, described her win as “one of the more unique matches I’ve played in a while — it was just relying a lot, I guess, on my grit and toughness and fight.”

Emma Raducanu, the 2021 U.S. Open champion, had a 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) win over No. 26-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova, setting up a second-round match against Amanda Anisimova.

In her first match since November, the 22-year-old British player had 15 double-faults, made 30 unforced errors and won just 30% of points on her second serve. But she was good enough in the big moments.

“I’m very proud of how I fought and how I overcame certain situations in that match,” Raducanu said. MDT/AP