Gael Monfils: How the showman of tennis is making it all about business

As with most of the 599 matches Gael Monfils has contended in his career, this week’s 6-3 6-2 6-3 fourth-round victory over Marcos Baghdatis, the match prior to his quarter-final win over Lucas Pouille on Tuesday night, will forever be reduced to only one shot. Down 0-40 in the opening game of the third set and on the defensive, the French number two grew tired of contesting a game he would likely lose. So he strolled to the ball, sliced it high into the air and then, as the ball dropped, he bent down at the hip and pretended to tie his laces. As he walked to the other side of the net, he chuckled to himself.

Over the years, the differing reactions to Monfils’ antics have almost come to define him. There is still the wonder and the awe that greets his trademark moments: in this instance, most of the crowd roared in delight and, within seconds of Monfils rising from his laces, the point was already circulating the internet in GIF form, immortalised alongside all his countless other viral points throughout the years.

Through moments like these, Monfils has become categorically one of the most popular players in the sport. One of the few consistent sights across tennis tournaments around the world is that of fans snubbing higher ranked players in favour of flocking to his practices or lining up in long queues to see him play. In the days before this year’s US Open began, while most practices rarely top a hundred viewers, Monfils’ practice session filled almost half of Grandstand, the third biggest stadium, as he riled the supporters to a frenzy with tweeners and overdramatic fistpumps between serious points with Dominic Thiem. Though Thiem was the only player ranked in the top 10 on that court, the eyes of onlookers only crossed to his side of the court on when the ball from Monfils’ strings dictated them to.

But over the past decade, exhibitions of both his freakish talent and ability to slice through the tension of any given match with a moment of spontaneous humor have simultaneously become a source of frustration. After years of his underachievement intersecting with his showmanship, the natural reaction has moved from adulation to wincing; the next cross-court drive seen merely as an invitation for the Frenchman to damage his notoriously frail body yet again. Monfils has received criticism both home and away, with people claiming he has been more interested in entertaining than winning.

In some ways, the criticism of Monfils has been incredibly unfair. Unlike other alleged “characters” in the past, there has never been any doubt that Monfils is a hard working tennis player on and off the court, nor that he wants to win. He has carried himself calmly and discreetly, finding less controversy than even the average player. And even if he has been hazardous to himself at times, he has never been anything but a value add for the sport.

The question has always been whether he wants to win enough, a question that seems to be a greater indictment on sporting and tennis culture than anything he has done. It’s a culture that holds the likes of Rafael Nadal on a lofty pedestal and acclaimed for their incredibly rare focus and application, but then castigates those who fail to meet those standards.

Monfils is one of the talented tennis players the sport has seen in years, and not just from the Dimitrov-like appreciation of his most complex shots. He can serve with anyone on a good day, yet he also gets a higher percentage of returns back into play than almost anyone. His legs are anointed, yet he is also a brilliant static ball striker off both sides, and one who will happily move forward to the net. It’s frustrating to see a player with this ability fall so far from what he’s capable of, but there is no moral requirement for an athlete to share the ambition onlookers have for him. Unsurprisingly, over the years, these issues have grated enough for him to become defensive about his penchant for fun, something he very calmly revealed on Tuesday.

“Sometime I can hear that - someone told me that my shoe laces, you know, it was one point on perfect win, clean win against Baghdatis,” he said after being asked about his showmanship. “You make it up. Oh, like he's doing a show. Or if I do a trick shot, one, and still kill it, you will say I'm a showman. So, you know, this one, with all the respect to everyone, is you guys to put me on the spot.”

Monfils was suggesting the label of “showman” was pushed onto him, and that his moments of spontaneity have only ever only been reserved for a point or two in long matches of concentration. It’s difficult to believe this has been the case throughout his career; in the past, moments like this often marked a time when Monfils’ concentration would blur or else it was less the cause and more the clear signal that his mind was elsewhere. It is only in 2016 that he has developed the ability to quarantine them to only one point.

This has proven to be one of Monfils’ career years. Aside from an energy- and weight-sapping virus during the middle of the season, he has been stunningly consistent. Since a quarter-final at the Australian Open, he has reached the latter rounds of nine significant events this year, including a Masters 1000 final in Monte Carlo and his first ever 500-level title in Washington. His stroll to the semi-final in New York this week, arriving without a single set conceded, will give the 30-year-old a high chance of reaching the World Tour Finals in London, something that wasn’t even on the radar at the beginning of the year.

The most shocking part of Monfils’ ascension is that it hasn’t been a volatile year of stunning highs and lows. Instead, he has become a paragon of consistency, constantly defeating the players he should defeat and successfully punching upwards on occasion. Monfils only has two top-10 wins in 2016 and three further wins over top-20 players, both low numbers for a player who will rise back into the top 10 on Monday, but he keeps on winning regardless.

Monfils’ quest for fun and spontaneity hasn’t changed, but in 2016 he can truly say that the fun part of his personality is in check. This is why, after Monfils finished pretending to tie his laces, it was actually Baghdatis who began creating mischief. The Cypriot started scrolling his iPhone during a change of ends, for which he received a warning, before attempting to rile up the crowd later on. It seemed he was trying to turn their match into the kind of spectacle that would eke out Monfils’ famous mischievousness, but the Frenchman didn’t even blink.

Before a match last week, an announcer brilliantly referred to the new Monfils as “95% business, 5% fun.” So far this week, the maths is checking out. More evidence arrived on Tuesday when Monfils followed up his win over Baghdatis by moving into his first US Open semi-final. In the first point of his first service game of the second set, he attempted a very unnecessary shot, strolling to an easily reachable ball and attempting to hit a tweener trick shot. It won’t ever be mentioned in the same light as the lace shot, however, because he fell on his butt.

Then Monfils got up and, unperturbed, he held his service game with ease, broke serve and then stamped his authority on his match with another easy hold. The rest of the match was a snoozefest for the onlooker, yet through it all Monfils remained dialed in. He feasted on his youngers, and he made it clear that the 5% fun quota had been used up for the match. Not for the first time this year, he was all business.