The 39-year-old French wild card, who is competing in his final season on the ATP Tour, battled past Tallon Griekspoor<\/a> 6-7(7), 6-1, 6-4 in the opening round of the clay Masters 1000 event on Sunday. With the two-hour, 15-minute victory, Monfils became the oldest match winner in Monte-Carlo since 41-year-old Istvan Gulyas<\/a> in 1973 and moved clear of Richard Gasquet<\/a> for the most ATP Masters 1000 wins among Frenchmen (145).<\/p>\n NOT. DONE. YET! \ud83d\udcaa@Gael_Monfils<\/a> overcomes Griekspoor to advance into Round 2 in his final appearance at the #RolexMonteCarloMasters<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/NeaRXyHZBe<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 ATP Tour (@atptour) April 5, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cI had to find the balance with, of course, a lot of emotions, knowing it\u2019s my last year here,\u201d Monfils said. \u201cI also haven\u2019t played since Indian Wells, so it wasn\u2019t easy, but in the end, I found my range and I\u2019m pretty pleased with this win. I love to play with emotion, I love playing with the crowd. The balance is easy for me to find because it’s joy and I can allow my creativity on the court.”<\/p>\n After narrowly dropping a high-quality first set, Monfils played with growing authority, feeding off the crowd\u2019s energy to dominate the remainder of the match \u2014 despite failing to serve out the match on his first attempt at 5-2 in the decider. With his win, the Frenchman improved to a 16-12 record in Monte-Carlo, according to the Infosys ATP Win\/Loss Index, having debuted here in 2005 and reached the final in 2016.<\/p>\n Monfils, the former No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, will face eighth seed Alexander Bublik<\/a> in the second round.<\/p>\n Griekspoor was competing in just his second match since withdrawing ahead of the Dubai final in February due to a left hamstring injury. The Dutchman returned last week in Marrakech, where he fell to Luca Van Assche<\/a>, and was unable to cope with Monfils\u2019 trademark flair and fighting spirit under the Monte-Carlo sun.<\/p>\n Monfils\u2019 fellow Frenchman Ugo Humbert<\/a> also booked his second-round spot. The lefty prevailed 6-3, 7-5 against his 17-year-old countryman Moise Kouame<\/a>, who was making his Monte-Carlo debut as a wild card. The World No. 34 Humbert will take on second seed Jannik Sinner<\/a> next: The two players have not faced off since 2021 and are locked at 1-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series. <\/p>\n In other Day 1 action at the clay-court Masters 100 event, Cameron Norrie<\/a> snapped a five-match losing streak in the Principality by defeating Miomir Kecmanovic<\/a> 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(0). The Briton set a second-round meeting with fifth seed Alex de Minaur<\/a>, whom he leads 3-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series.<\/p>\n Alejandro Tabilo<\/a> made a winning return to the site where he memorably stunned Novak Djokovic<\/a> last year en route to the third round. The Chilean downed Marton Fucsovics<\/a> 6-4, 6-3, earning an appointment with Miami finalist Jiri Lehecka<\/a> or qualifier Emilio Nava<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"\u201cATP](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/atp-fantasy-article-banner.jpg\")
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