Going Home, Leaving Home

“I’m French, and I’m fast,” Gael Monfils once informed us in a TV commercial. If anything, it was an understatement. No one covers the court the way the force of nature known as La Monf does, and no one better conforms to the U.S. idea of the flashy tennis player from France who can do everything except win.

Monfils will represent his country in the Davis Cup semifinals this weekend, when they face two-time defending champion Czech Republic at Roland Garros. As usual, France has a deep team; Monfils was a point away from the U.S. Open semifinals last week, but as of now team captain Arnaud Clement only has him down for doubles duty. "It's not easy to recover from jet lag," Monfils said yesterday. "I'm feeling a bit tired."

Monfils, 28, has been to the semis of his home Slam, and he seems to relish the chance to send his countrymen on an emotional roller-coaster with every match. Like Andy Murray, though, he has often seemed to enjoy himself more in New York. He doesn’t feel the same pressure to succeed, and he says he loves the city and thrives on the Open’s chaotic buzz. The tournament has loved him right back. In 2013, a night audience in Louis Armstrong Stadium stood and chanted his name, despite the fact that he was playing the American No. 1, John Isner. This year, in the early going, Monfils was entertainer in residence on the Grandstand, where full houses came to see him put on his patented mix of tennis and acrobatics.

In truth, though, La Monf’s Open was notable for being more about tennis, and less about entertainment, than usual. Over his first four rounds, he won all 12 sets he played, including three straight over world No. 8 Grigor Dimitrov. In the quarters, Monfils won the first two sets, and nearly the fourth, from Roger Federer, in the match of the tournament. That’s when, as the clock tolled midnight, he finally turned back into the Monfils of old, double-faulting at inopportune moments and running out of gas down the stretch. Still, there was some reason to believe that he could be the next male player to pull a Stan Wawrinka and transform himself from underachiever to late-bloomer as he approaches 30. Monfils certainly doesn’t seem to have slowed down.

If anything, though, Monfils was more of a revelation in the interview room at Flushing Meadows than he was on the court. I can remember talking to him for a few minutes 10 years ago, when he was trying, and eventually failing, to complete the calendar-year junior Grand Slam at the Open. Then his answers in English were mostly mono-syllabic. Over the years, they got longer, but not necessarily much more serious, at least when I saw him. Usually he smiled and shrugged and said, essentially, “What are you going to do with a guy like me?” when asked why he had lost this match or squandered that lead. Two weeks before the Open, in Cincinnati, he had listened to Darren Cahill ask him questions in English in a pre-match interview on ESPN, and proceeded to answer them, with a straight face, in French. This seemed like the quintessential Monfilsian dialogue.

Then he came to New York, and started winning, and started talking. Talking seriously, thoughtfully, and at length. He was in command on court, and in command in the interview room as well. When he was asked if he was focusing more at this tournament, he bristled and responded, “I’m cool. As usual.”

After he beat Dimitrov, Monfils was asked about his connection to the Open. He cast a storyteller's spell over the assembled media.

“Well, I love the city first,” he said. “For me, it’s the first time, you know, I travel overseas with my mom it was here, so for me it means a lot. First time I see my dad overseas was here, too. Then here it’s simple. My dad when I have been with him and my previous physio, you know, he passed away like a few years ago, and he bring me, you know, to the Bronx and had a family and bring me to some friends he had. Then he show me that, you know, the community, the black community was behind me. I was not aware about that also, here. Then they start to come to the stadium, bring me that energy, and then they teach me that here I can feel so like at home, and I have a second family also, as I say even in the French Open. So when I feel good, the crowd is behind me, have a great spirit, I think I can be very tough to beat.”

It took a while for Monfils to talk about the black community in the Bronx in that answer, as if he were a little reluctant to bring it up—I haven’t heard him mention it in the past. But you could see that it was a surprising and moving experience to him, a black Frenchman whose parents are from the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, to find that sense of belonging in New York. Monfils has always loved African-American culture; he plays and follows basketball (in a classic piece of Monfilsian logic, his favorite team is the Detroit Pistons, while his favorite player is Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks), and he walked on court for his match against Dimitrov with Beyoncé’s “Partition” blaring on his headphones. At the Open, and in New York, he has a chance to feel that love reciprocated, and to feel at home spiritually, which must be gratifying. Even Kevin Garnett of the Brooklyn Nets came out and showed his love for him at the Open.

This was an example of tennis and the United States—both melting pots in their own ways—at their worldly best. Monfils will play his heart out for his country at Roland Garros this weekend, but there’s no question he left a little of that heart back in New York. La Monf is still very fast, and he’s still très français, but I’m claiming him as an honorary American.