Madrid (AFP)
Gael Monfils acknowledged Sunday that the week spent in London as a substitute at the Masters had been "much more intense" than expected and he had not "recharged the batteries" as he hoped for the Davis Cup where France enters on Tuesday.
"I get a little bit," he said on Sunday night when he arrived at Caja Magica, where the competition will take place (18-24 November), I thought I would recharge the batteries there (in London, Editor's note), but in the end it's a lot more intense than I thought: long waits, trying to train a lot anyway as I had to stay active ... "
Arrived Saturday night in Madrid where he found with pleasure "the friends" of the French team for a dinner, Monfils explained to have trained "a lot" in London with the Japanese juniors Shintaro Mochizuki (winner of Wimbledon juniors this year ) and Danish Holger Rune (winner of this year's Roland-Garros Junior), as well as Roberto Bautista, replacing N.1 at the Masters and who also joined Madrid to play the Davis Cup alongside Rafael Nadal.
But the London experience did not please Monfils.
"It was a lot of waiting: we are locked up all day long, we try to take a field as soon as there is a hole, usually it's half an hour, and then we stop because they come and warm up, then we start training again and finally we arrive early and we leave quite late and we do not really have much time for ourselves, "he lamented.
"I left without staff, also for recovery" and finally all that it was a pretty intense week, "he added.
"I was expecting it to be less intense, with the holidays there would be no training ... and finally, training in the holes on and off, and without physio, it was complicated "he concluded.
France, semi-finalist of the 2018 Davis Cup, is seeded N.1 in Madrid for the first edition of the competition in its new championship format. Sébastien Grosjean's men are in group A with Serbia from Novak Djokovic and Japan without Kei Nishikori.
© 2019 AFP