Gael Monfils reached his first ATP final in almost 20 months on Saturday, beating American Marcos Giron—who was playing in his first ATP semifinal—in straight sets, 7-5, 6-0.
Giron was having the best week of his career, not only advancing past the quarterfinals of an ATP event for the first time but also taking out No. 26-ranked Alex de Minaur en route, his third Top 30 win of the year. And early on it looked like he might keep his run going as he built a 4-2 first set lead, but the No. 20-ranked Monfils reeled off 11 of the next 12 games to run away with a straight-sets victory.
“At the beginning, Marcos was playing very solid. I could not find the exit door and at the end I found it,” Monfils told ATPTour.com. “It was a very physical match with lots of long rallies.
“I am very happy to get through.”
Another ATP final has been a long time coming for Monfils.
Right before COVID-19 shut down the tennis tour last year, he was one of the hottest players around, winning back-to-back titles in Montpellier and Rotterdam, then almost reaching a third straight final in Dubai—he got to the semis there before falling to Novak Djokovic after holding three match points.
Once the tour restarted last August, the magic had gone—Monfils went 3-14 in his first 14 events back between September 2020 and July 2021, falling from inside the Top 10 to outside the Top 20.
But he started finding his mojo again this summer, winning back-to-back matches at four straight events in Canada, Cincinnati, the US Open and Metz last week—he’s now back in the Top 20, and with a few more wins in Sofia this week he’s now won 10 of his last 14 matches going into the final.
Monfils has now reached at least one ATP final every year for 17 years, a streak that began in 2005 when he won his first ATP title in Sopot, Poland (beating Florian Mayer in the final) and reached another two finals on home soil in Metz (falling to Ivan Ljubicic) and Lyon (falling to Andy Roddick).