Gael Monfils’s 10-Year Monte Carlo Connection Comes Full Circle in Shock Defeat

Gael Monfils‘ final run at the Monte Carlo Masters was brought to an end by World No. 11 Alexander Bublik. The latter made a strong start to his clay-court season and recorded a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 victory over the veteran in what was his 13th appearance of the tournament. Interestingly, this was kind of a full circle moment for Bublik as he had been Monfils’ hitting partner in Monte Carlo exactly 10 years back.

The Kazakh let Monfils know about this in a brief chat he had with him after winning the match at Court Rainier III. “Do you know what? Exactly 10 years ago, I was a hitting partner here,” Bublik said. The two shared a heartwarming moment as the crowd gave a big round of applause to the Frenchman.

Bublik put in a dominant performance against Monfils and looked especially strong on his serve. On the other hand, the latter looked to be shaky on his second serve and his opponent made him pay big time for this in the first set. Bublik broke Monfils’ serve at an important stage and took a valuable lead by clinching the first set.

The second set didn’t prove to be as easy for Bublik as Monfils held his serve confidently. But the Kazakh finally got an opportunity to break his opponent’s serve at 3-4. Though he did have his chances, Monfils did his best to hold and eventually won the game. With the crowd being firmly behind the 39-year-old, it looked like he would take the second set to a tie-breaker. However, Bublik had other ideas.

At 4-5, Monfils looked weak on his serve once again and Bublik didn’t let the chance go by this time around. He went on to break the serve to win the match in straight-sets and advance to the Round of 16.

Full Circle Moment

Exactly 10 years on from being a hitting partner with Monfils at Monte-Carlo, Bublik ends the Frenchman’s career at the #RolexMonteCarloMasters https://t.co/uA0PhvWf7k pic.twitter.com/cgjszwkihX

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) April 7, 2026

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