Gael Monfils: The Lion Who Failed to Roar

I swallowed half my breakfast, and had to choke some out; as I glued my eyes onto the screen witnessing what could have been the fall of an empire, for his mighty Rafael Nadal and his fans all around the globe. I watched in anticipation as the ball bounced left and right.

The Spaniard march to victory was disordered as the Frenchman Gael Monfils bombarded the courts with his aces. He seized every opportunity that passed by, creating more panic for the third seed. The crowd watched in silence, some, open-mouthed. The usual roars and celebrations that surrounded Nadal was vandalized by Monfils. He often talked to himself, I believe it’s his strategy to control his pumped up emotions and to boost his morale.

But several errors by the Frenchman, made Nadal regain his self-confidence and his fire-power returned. He steadied himself, and returned the fight hard onto Gael, who was now losing his strength and stamina, but he wrapped up the first set, thou Nadal came real close, with a 7-6.

The second set proved to be the resurrection of a first-seemed shaky Nadal to his inexorable self. Things started to change, the momentum shifted and the fans were back on their feet. Nadal was too hot for young Gael to handle, and he found himself unable to clear the ball from his court. He ended the second set with an impressive 6-3.

He then wrecked the young man’s moral as he winded up the third set with yet another impressive 6-1. The freshman had to run all around the court to handle Nadal at his best. Nadal was then at his unstoppable stage.

The third set was a little too much for Monfils, as he failed to return back the shots, or the shots he made never cleared the nets, and some went all the way to the hands of the ball-boy standing behind Nadal.

Monfils never had the intensity, nor did he regain himself. One of Nadal’s untamable returns saw Gael falling down, heart-broken and fatigued. It was then the unforced errors that let him down. 63 unforced errors said the whole story. Nadal wrapped up the game high in confidence.

On winning the final point, he dropped to his knees and thanked the heavens. He had won the quarterfinals of the US Open. A pat on the back, on Gael Monfils showed his appreciation and admiration for the Frenchman’s talent.

The whole crowd stood in respect as Gael Monfils left the court, a little disappointed, but extremely fatigued. Those who witnessed this match would remember Gael Monfils as a Lion who failed to roar.