Daniil Medvedev cedes No. 1 ranking in Indian Wells with stunning loss to inspired Gaël Monfils

WATCH: Monfils won nine of the final 10 games to dethrone world No. 1 Medvedev at the BNP Paribas Open.

Daniil Medvedev fell two matches short of assuring himself a fourth week atop the ATP rankings, losing nine of the final 10 games played against resurgent French veteran Gaël Monfils, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 at the BNP Paribas Open.

His defeat means Novak Djokovic will return to the top of the ATP rankings next Monday, despite withdrawing from both Indian Wells and Miami due to his refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Medvedev briefly solved the slow hard courts that have conspired to keep him from the quarterfinals in four previous appearances—of 26 different hard-court tournaments played in his career, Indian Wells is one of just two where the reigning US Open champion is yet to make at least the last eight—when he rode an 11-point streak through the end of the opening set.

But Monfils, himself in the midst of a career renaissance, broke early in the second set and held off a comeback from the top seed to score his first win over a reigning world No. 1 since 2009 after two hours and four minutes on Stadium 1 court.

To illustrate the 13-year gap between career milestones, Monfils’ last victory over a top-ranked man was against Rafael Nadal in the weeks after the Spaniard won his first Australian Open title; Nadal had yet to complete a Career Grand Slam and Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 Monfils had come closest to beating in the decade since, still only had one major title to his name at the time.

Such is life for a born entertainer who, through a career of highs and lows, has never failed to make tennis fans smile. The global pandemic appeared to have drawn the curtain on the 35-year-old Monfils when he went over a year between match wins, ostensibly ending a 2019-2020 run of form that had seen him return to the Top 10 and win three titles in 12 months.

Professional accolades had seemingly taken a back seat in favor of personal success last spring as Monfils married longtime partner Elina Svitolina, the highest-ranked Ukrainian to ever play the game. A fixture at Monfils matches, Svitolina has been dealing with the fallout of Russia's invasion into her home country for the last month, vowing to donate her prize money to Ukraine's armed defense.

Monfils began made steady improvements through last summer and began a turn back towards the top last fall when he reached his first final of the season. He kicked off 2022 with an 11th ATP title in Adelaide to foreshadow a quarterfinal finish at the Australian Open.

Tied with Medvedev at one win apiece coming into Monday, Monfils, seeded No. 26, clearly thrived in the slower conditions on offer at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden despite an inauspicious start when he was struck with a serve during the warm-up.

Medvedev, by contrast, struggled to find stick on his shots throughout the three-set affair, frustrating him into double faults and uncharacteristic unforced errors—37 in total—while Monfils channeled his famed athleticism to pick up would-be winners and turn points in his favor.

A dramatic finish saw Medvedev save five match points, including three in a row from 0-40 down, but Monfils, who wasted three match points against Djokovic in 2020, made no mistakes this time, tightening his focus to book a Round-of-16 clash with Carlos Alcaraz. As Svitolina looked on, Monfils wrote Famille on the camera lens, a tribute to his very own in Ukraine.

Fresh off his first ATP 500 title last month in Rio de Janeiro, Alcaraz has been at his blistering best to start his own BNP Paribas Open campaign, dropping just two games to dismiss countryman Roberto Bautista Agut, 6-2, 6-0, and is yet to lose a set in the California desert.