{"id":502819,"date":"2026-02-27T10:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/502819\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T10:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T10:07:14","slug":"gael-monfils-thanks-juan-martin-del-potro-in-emotional-acapulco-moment-hes-a-big-champion-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/502819\/","title":{"rendered":"Gael Monfils thanks Juan Martin del Potro in emotional Acapulco moment: &#8216;He&#8217;s a big champion&#8217; | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        Acapulco<br \/>\n    Monfils thanks Del Potro in emotional Acapulco moment: &#8216;He&#8217;s a big champion&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The 39-year-old earned his first win of 2026 before falling in Acapulco second round<\/p>\n<p>February 27, 2026<\/p>\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/monfils-acapulco-2026-farewell.jpg\" alt=\"Gael Monfils is honoured Wednesday at the ATP 500 event in Acapulco.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Alfredo Estrella\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>        Gael Monfils is honoured Wednesday at the ATP 500 event in Acapulco.<br \/>\n        By ATP Staff<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/gael-monfils\/mc65\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gael Monfils<\/a> has long been a fan favourite and a beloved presence in the locker room. Playing his final season on the ATP Tour, Monfils was honoured on Thursday at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/tournaments\/acapulco\/807\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC<\/a>, with former World No. 3 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/juan-martin-del-potro\/d683\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Juan Martin del Potro<\/a> among those in attendance.<\/p>\n<p>Monfils, who reached the Acapulco final in 2009 when the tournament was held on clay, was honoured a day after his second-round match, a 3-6, 3-6 defeat to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/valentin-vacherot\/va25\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Valentin Vacherot<\/a>. During the ceremony, the 39-year-old shared a message of gratitude, acknowledging Del Potro, who was courtside.<\/p>\n<p>\n\u201cWe had big battles. He\u2019s a big champion,\u201d Monfils said of Del Potro. \u201cFor me, it means a lot that you\u2019re here, that you send messages. Thank you so much Juan Martin and thank you to the others as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A legend celebrates a legend \ud83d\ude22<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/delpotrojuan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@delpotrojuan<\/a> in the house to fete the great <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Gael_Monfils?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Gael_Monfils<\/a> in Acapulco. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AMT2026?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#AMT2026<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GEFnvUAaiT\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/GEFnvUAaiT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Tennis TV (@TennisTV) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TennisTV\/status\/2027205378069389674?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 27, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\nDel Potro and Monfils faced each other twice, with the Argentine winning both Lexus ATP Head2Head encounters \u2014 each in Rotterdam (2013, 2014).<\/p>\n<p>\nMonfils earned his first win of 2026 by defeating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atptour.com\/en\/players\/damir-dzumhur\/d923\/overview\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Damir Dzumhur<\/a> in the Acapulco first round. A 13-time tour-level titlist, the former No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings boasts a 584-353 career record, according to the Infosys ATP Win\/Loss Index.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Acapulco Monfils thanks Del Potro in emotional Acapulco moment: &#8216;He&#8217;s a big champion&#8217; The 39-year-old earned his first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-502819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}