Gael Monfils continued his impressive start to the 2025 season after fighting back to beat Fabian Marozsan in his first round match at the Monte Carlo Masters.
Monfils impressed even himself against Marozsan in what is his 12th appearance at the Monte Carlo Masters.
This included a lung-busting rally that Monfils came out on top of, with the 38-year-old bringing the crowd to their feet.
As a result of his victory, Monfils has now set up a second round meeting with seventh seed and former Monte Carlo Masters champion Andrey Rublev.
Gael Monfils already knows what Andrey Rublev is going to do in their Monte Carlo match
While Monfils is having a successful 2025 season, Rublev has had mixed results despite winning his 17th ATP title in Doha.
In a bid to combat that, Rublev has hired Marat Safin as his coach, with their first match together against Monfils.
Rublev has praised Safin for the work they have already done together, but Monfils is expecting for more of the same from his upcoming opponent.
“Well, I see it all right. I don’t even know what to say anymore,” Monfils said in his post-match press conference. “I see things pretty good. I played a million matches like this one, and we’ll see.
“Honestly, I know exactly what he’s going to do. It’s up to me, rather, to try to counterattack or find a solution.
“I know he’s going to be very intense. He’s going to hit hard every time he has the opportunity on one of my shorter shots. So okay. Either I lose badly, no problem, or I win, no problem. I’m happy, because I won today, one out of one.”
This will be the first match between Monfils and Rublev on a clay court, with all of their three previous meetings coming on hard courts.
Monfils will be hoping that their Monte Carlo encounter goes differently to their most recent meetings, with Rublev winning the last two in the head-to-head.
| Year | Tournament | Result |
| 2018 | Qatar Open | Monfils beat Rublev, 6-2 6-3 |
| 2021 | Cincinnati Open | Rublev beat Monfils, 7-6(2) 7-6(5) |
| 2023 | US Open | Rublev beat Monfils, 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-1 |
Gael Monfils explains how he beat Fabian Marozsan in the first round
After losing the first set, 6-4, Monfils had to change something in the early stages of the second.
This is when Monfils won that lengthy rally to help him get an all important break and go 3-1 up.
From this point on the Frenchman never looked back and only lost one more game to progress to the next round.
When re-living that point, Monfils claimed that he was able to take advantage of Marozsan, who he believed was mentally struggling to move on from that point.
“These points are always strange, because you have to play the next one immediately,” explained Monfils. “He had to serve immediately after, and he made a double fault after missing the first serve.
“So I tried to play in different places then. I tried to slow down the pace to make him play more. So the situation is a bit biased.
“The last point, he didn’t really play it. I tried to put pressure on him after that, and I believe for him it was more a matter of mental shock after that rally. I was quite lucky on a very deep return, also, and I think he got annoyed more than anything else.”
Monfils will look to produce some more eye-catching tennis when he plays Rublev on Wednesday April 9.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
