Sports Then and Now

Gael Monfils will look to make a good run at Wimbledon.

The top-seeded French player competing at Wimbledon next week, Gael Monfils, is shaping up for life on grass courts rather nicely at the Gerry Weber ATP event in Halle, Germany. He made it through to the semifinals before being eliminated by the German tennis player and eventual winner Phillipp Kohlschreiber and as such will be looking forward to play getting underway at the All-England Club in London on Monday.

He is perhaps not at his best on grass – a point highlighted by the fact that his best results in Grand Slams have come at the US Open and the French Open – snaring quarter-final and semi-final finishes respectively. But now, following a strong showing in Germany on grass, and a generous ninth seed placement for the SW19 tournament, he is looking in good shape to really mount a challenge and those who bet on Wimbledon 2011 will have to keep an eye on him.

“In the last days before Wimbledon, I want to improve my overall game further still – serve faster and stronger and work on my movement. Last year, I was terrible on grass, because that surface does not come naturally to me, so this year I am happy, I want to continue improving,” he said.

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Last season was the first time that he had competed at Wimbledon since 2007 and won his opening fixture in straight sets against the Argentine Leonardo Mayer, and then progressing through the second round at the expense of the Slovakian competitor, Karol Beck. However, in the third round he came up against Lleyton Hewitt who excels on grass and as a result he was eliminated for the event in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6, 6-4. As a result of this, Wimbledon remains the only Grand Slam event in which the talented Frenchman has failed to advance past the third round – an anomaly he will be desperate to amend this year. Those who bet on tennis 2011 will be curious to see how he has progressed in the last year.

His stand-out highlights from this season have come at both the AAMI Kooyong Classic – where he lost in the final to Hewitt – as well as the French Open. In Paris, Monfils lost to eventual losing finalist Roger Federer, and despite the straight sets score-line of 6-4 6-3 7-6, there were more than a few scary moments for the Swiss.