"I have a partial rupture" ligament at the level "of the left wrist" (triangular ligament of the carpus), explained the thirty-year-old French at a press conference.

Monfils (36) had signed an unlikely victory in the first round Tuesday night after being led 4 games to 0 in the fifth set by the Argentine Sebastian Baez (42nd), 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 after 3h47 min of fight, at midnight passed. It was his first since returning to the circuit after a seven-month absence, the fault of a recalcitrant right foot.

"Yesterday (Tuesday during the match, editor's note), I was in pain, at one point I quickly called the physio for two seconds, but finally I had handled myself a little bit and I told myself that I did not necessarily need it. I finished the match with a lot of adrenaline. In the evening, we iced right away, I thought it was going well. This morning (Wednesday), I took a lot of anti-inflammatories, we went to type a little, I was still in pain, we did care, we typed a little more this afternoon, I typed well but I felt that I was still in pain. Finally, with the doctor, he was not sure with the echo, we did an MRI to find out, and he told me: +Don't play+," Monfils said.

"I don't show it too much but there is more than disappointment, because how many do I have left of the Roland-Garros?" he asked aloud. That's the real question. How many do I have left?"

French tennis player Gael Monfils celebrates his victory over Argentina's Sebastian Baez during the Roland Garros tournament in Paris on May 30, 2023. © Martin LELIEVRE / AFP

"I just heard the news thirty minutes ago, it's fresh, for now I'm digesting it," he continued.

Monfils is due to undergo further examinations on Thursday to find out more about how long he has been unavailable. But he was rather optimistic Wednesday night.

"The doctor told me that he was hopeful that I could play on grass," whose season begins in the wake of Roland-Garros, he said.

"It's a few weeks, it's not huge," he said. It can be very fast, as well as longer. If it was a complete breakup, it would be more serious. There, it's just partial.

Almost twenty-four hours earlier, Monfils had described his crazy Parisian night in the first round, finished lying with his back on the clay, shaken by sobs, as "one of the best moments of sport I could live."

Already qualified for the third round, Rune, one of the most serious outsiders of the Parisian Grand Slam, will face a player from the qualifications for a place in the knockout rounds: either the Argentine Genaro Alberto Olivieri, or the Italian Andrea Vavassori.

© 2023 AFP