Monfils Trails Gaston 4-1 in Gaston Tennis Night Session

Gaël Monfils started his last Roland-Garros on Monday night and quickly fell behind Hugo Gaston 4-1 in their French first-round match on Court Philippe-Chatrier. The opening set left the veteran chasing from the start, with gaston tennis taking center stage in the night session.

Court Philippe-Chatrier

Monfils had made only 36% of his first serves when he was down 4-1, a sharp early problem in a match that carried extra weight because it was described as his final Roland-Garros appearance. Gaston used the fast start to control the pace in front of the Paris crowd.

The winner of this match was set to meet the winner of Francisco Cerundolo and Botic Van De Zandschulp, a pairing that was already moving deep into the evening. Cerundolo led that match two sets to one, 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 1-1, after missing a match point in the third set.

Monday Results

Roland-Garros first-round play kept moving across the day. Arthur Rinderknech beat Jurij Rodionov 7-6, 6-2, 6-3, while Luca Van Assche outlasted Vilius Gaubas after nearly four hours, 6-4, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5.

Ugo Humbert also moved through, beating Adrian Mannarino 6-3, 6-4, 6-3. Léolia Jeanjean lost to Kaitlin Quevedo 6-7, 6-7, Sarah Rakotomanga fell to Amanda Anisimova 3-6, 1-6, and Térence Atmane dropped a five-setter to Thanasi Kokkinakis, 7-6, 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 5-7.

Ruud and Safiullin

Another five-set match was still unfolding later Monday after Atmane-Kokkinakis. Roman Safiullin had held five match points before Casper Ruud turned the third set around from 5-2 down and won the fourth 6-0, with Ruud scheduled to play Hamad Medjedovic in the next round.

That left Monfils-Gaston as the night-session match tied to the biggest personal storyline of the day: Monfils beginning the last Roland-Garros of his career while trying to recover from an early 4-1 hole against Gaston.