Paris, May 26 (IANS) Gael Monfils fell short to fellow Frenchman Hugo Gaston in the first round of the French Open. The 2008 semi-finalist’s defeat was his final match at Roland Garros.

The 39-year-old former top 10 player fell short of completing another pulsating comeback in his favourite playground against Gaston 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-0 on Court Philippe-Chatrier, bringing the curtain down on his 19th career appearance at his home Grand Slam event.

Monfils finished his Roland Garros career with a 40-18 record, according to the ATP Win/Loss Index. The Frenchman’s best result on the terre battue came in 2008, when he reached the semi-finals and fell to Roger Federer in four sets. In addition, Monfils also reached three quarter-finals at his home Slam.

With peers and legends including Richard Gasquet, Sebastien Grosjean, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Yannick Noah watching on, the 2008 semifinalist was listless across the first two sets, until he found the special spark that only comes on Chatrier.

Serving at 3-3, 30-30, Monfils hammered an ace, and let out a roar that brought both himself and the 15,000-strong crowd in the stands back to life

He won eight straight games on the way to claiming both the third and fourth sets, and he seemed positioned to pull off a comeback from two sets down on Paris’ main stage for the second year in a row after beating Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien in the opening round 12 months ago, Roland-Garros reports.

But as the clock struck midnight, Monfils had nothing left to give, and Gaston soon eased to the five-set win in 3 hours and 22 minutes.

Monfils won just eight points in the final set, and four of those came in his first service game, where he failed to convert an opportunity to equal the score at 1-1 and, potentially, change the trajectory of his final act at Roland-Garros.

A tribute video played, with messages from some of his greatest rivals and friends, including Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, and Stan Wawrinka, and his compatriots Gasquet, Noah, Gilles Simon, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Arthur Fils, before he was reunited on-court with his fellow ‘Musketeers’.

His opponent, too, paid tribute when meeting the media afterwards. The 25-year-old Gaston said that Monfils was always generous with time and advice and, overall, enjoyed being part of the experience.

“It was quite a strange feeling when, at the end of the third set, everyone was shouting, ‘Gael, Gael,’ I wanted to shout with them,” Gaston said.

–IANS

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