{"id":425198,"date":"2026-01-20T09:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/425198\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T09:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T09:52:09","slug":"jannik-sinner-v-hugo-gaston-james-duckworth-v-dino-prizmic-kimberly-birrell-v-maddison-inglis-daria-kasatkina-v-nikola-bartunkova-day-3-tennis-scores-draws-players-tips-matches-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/425198\/","title":{"rendered":"Jannik Sinner v Hugo Gaston, James Duckworth v Dino Pri\u017emi\u0107, Kimberly Birrell v Maddison Inglis, Daria Kasatkina v Nikola Bartunkova day 3 tennis scores, draws, players, tips, matches, how to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennis showman Gael Monfils bowed out of his 20th and final Australian Open with a mix of pain and regret as he fell to an injury-hampered 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-5 defeat in the first round to local qualifier Dane Sweeny.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old Frenchman had flashes of his trademark flamboyance and somehow made a game of it despite being severely restricted in his movement amid a heady atmosphere at Kia Arena.<\/p>\n

\"Gael<\/p>\n

Gael Monfils is congratulated by Craig Tiley.Credit: Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cMy journey started in 2003 with you guys, now we are in 2026 and somehow it\u2019s the finish line. Thank you so much for this amazing ride, you guys have been unbelievable,\u201d Monfils told the cheering fans who gave him a standing ovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of great memories here … I\u2019ve been very lucky to play here for many years. Thank you very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Home fans, some toting inflatable kangaroos, were in full voice as world number 182 Sweeny roared back from 5-3 down and took four straight games to claim the second set.<\/p>\n

But even their cheers tapered as Monfils\u2019 movement diminished to a crab-walk across the baseline.<\/p>\n

Sweeny rode an early break and took the third set, soon after Monfils\u2019 wife Elina Svitolina, the Ukrainian tennis professional, arrived at her husband\u2019s players\u2019 box for moral support.<\/p>\n

A match seemingly headed for a deflating finish spontaneously re-ignited, though, as Monfils went for broke with his shots and the 24-year-old Australian froze with nerves.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennis showman Gael Monfils bowed out of his 20th and final Australian Open with a mix of pain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-425198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}