Gaël Monfils after his defeat against Thiem - SIPA

As he says himself, Gaël Monfils was "torn" Monday in the knockout stages of the Australian Open by Dominic Thiem, but he refuses to put this defeat in the account of the shock received a few hours before the match upon learning of the death of his idol Kobe Bryant.

With "La Monf" (10th in the world), beaten for the 6th time in 6 games by the Austrian (5th) 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, disappears the last of the 18 French entered in Melbourne (13 in the male table and 5 in the female). All his compatriots had been eliminated after the second round.

@FFLose KO victory: Monfils, last 🇫🇷 competing at the Australian Open, gave up #AusOpen #HomeOfTennis

👉 https://t.co/mZRRH5aysC pic.twitter.com/BRXeYrTTY8

- Eurosport.fr (@Eurosport_FR) January 27, 2020

“I didn't necessarily make a good match. He made a solid match. There was a lot of waste on my return, "said Monfils, while admitting to having had" a lot of trouble keeping up with the pace he (Thiem) imposed ".

The observation is there for Monfils: "he was stronger than me". "I found it difficult to impose anything", he summed up, adding in the process "but there is no dead man ..."

Because the Parisian was still reeling from the death, a few hours before his match, of his idol Kobe Bryant in a helicopter accident in California.

"50 messages"

“When I woke up, I had 50 messages from all my friends. We spent an hour with Elina (Svitolina, her world partner N.5) trying to understand, to look. We were shocked. He was someone we greatly admired, ”said the basketball fanatic.

Thiem, for his part, believes that he played "a very, very good match, from start to finish".

"Yesterday already (Sunday, note) in training and this morning during the warm-up I felt my strikes well", he underlined. During the entire meeting, in fact, he forced Monfils to deploy tactical treasures and tennis jewelry to overflow him. Impossible for the French to maintain this level on all points.

The Austrian, who announced in Melbourne that he has separated from his coach Thomas Muster after two weeks of collaboration, will face the German Alexander Zverev (7th) or the Russian Andrey Rublev (16th) for a place in the last square.

  • Australian Open
  • Gaël Monfils
  • Tennis
  • Sport