Gael Monfils makes records by reaching Australian Open 4th round
What's the story
38-year-old French tennis star Gael Monfils has reached the fourth round of the Australian Open.
He pulled off a stunning upset against fourth seed Taylor Fritz, winning 3-6, 7-5, 7-6(1), 6-4.
This is Monfils's eighth successive match victory and comes just days after he became the oldest man in nearly half a century to win an ATP Tour title in Auckland.
Here are the details.
Game plan
Monfils's strategy and performance
Monfils's plan against Fritz was to mix off-pace groundstrokes with sudden bursts of pace.
He played a near-perfect third-set tie-break to take the lead, and got a crucial break at 4-all in the fourth set.
"The game plan was to hold the baseline and change the tempo, hit some big shots down the line and also use some shape. I did the job," Monfils said after his victory.
Stats
A look at the match stats and H2H record
Monfils also showed brilliant serving skills in the match, winning 82% of first-serve points and 68% of second-serve points.
He hit a total of 58 winners to 34 unforced errors.
Monfils doled out a whopping 24 aces compared to Fritz's 12. However, the former committed four double faults with Fritz committing none.
Monfils converted 2/6 break points.
This was the 2nd meeting between the pair on the ATP Tour. Fritz overcame Monfils in the first meeting at 2019 Australian Open.
Next challenge
Monfils's historical achievements
With 13 tour-level titles, Monfils is now the second-oldest man after Roger Federer to reach the Australian Open fourth round since the tournament moved to Melbourne Park in 1988.
This was also Monfils's 37th Australian Open win, equaling former finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for most wins by a Frenchman at this major.
As per Opta, Monfils is now the oldest player to defeat a top-5 opponent at the Australian Open event since the ATP rankings were first published.
Do you know?
Monfils joins Djokovic in elite company at AO 2025
After Novak Djokovic, Monfils has now reached the men's singles Round of 16 in a Grand Slam after the age of 37 for the first time since Australian Open 1978 (Ken Rosewall and Bob Carmichael).