Alexander Bublik, the No. 8 seed, defeated Gaël Monfils 6-4, 6-4 on Tuesday to move into the last 16 of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, ending the Frenchman’s final appearance at a tournament he first played in 2005.
The match lasted one hour and 17 minutes and was settled on serve. Bublik won 72 per cent of points behind his second delivery against 40 per cent for Monfils – a gap that left the 39-year-old no margin for error in the rallies that followed. Monfils leaves Monte-Carlo with a 16-13 win-loss record at the tournament, having reached the final here in 2016.
“I was a hitting partner here”
At the net, Bublik offered something beyond a handshake. “Exactly 10 years ago, I was a hitting partner here,” he told Monfils as they embraced. Monfils remembered the conversation that followed that week immediately. “I told you grass is not your main, here is your main! Remember that,” he replied – advice that, in retrospect, landed. Bublik reached the Roland-Garros quarterfinals last year and won back-to-back clay titles in Gstaad and Kitzbühel, a turnaround that began on the surface he once openly disliked.
In the press conference, Monfils was asked to explain why he apologised to the crowd after the match. “Because I wanted to do better,” he said. “I was a bit flat today. I lacked energy, and I really wanted to do better and to play well. Sometimes I want to do better, but my body doesn’t allow me to do that.” He acknowledged that Bublik had earned the result. “He played a solid match on his side. He was very precise in his game. When you play against a top-11, it’s always more difficult, but I tried my best.”
What lingers from Monaco, though, is not the scoreline but a question no one can quite answer yet — including Monfils himself. Asked what it will feel like to walk out at Roland-Garros for the last time, he smiled and paused. “I guess it’s gonna be something that I won’t forget ever,” he said. Whether it will overwhelm him is less certain. “I don’t know. Somehow I don’t know, because I am inside. Maybe I don’t show it too much. I am inside. But when it gets you, it gets you. So far I have been very okay to control my emotions, so I will see.”
Monfils remembers every match played
That tension – between the performer who has always fed off crowds and the man who cannot predict what his own farewell will do to him – is the unresolved thread running through his entire season. He tries, he said, to approach each stop like any other. “I try to be competitive as much as I can. Of course you try to put emotions aside. But when it ends, they all come back.” He was asked directly: when you arrive at a tournament now, do you think this is the last time, or do you behave like a normal player? “I always try to propose the best match I can,” he said – which is not quite an answer, and perhaps the most honest one available.
On what he will carry from Monte-Carlo specifically, he did not reach for a highlight. “I remember every match I played. I will remember from the first match to the last match. The clay courts here are beautiful, and I was very lucky to be able to play 13 times in this tournament.”
Bublik, ranked No. 11, next faces the winner of the match between Czech Jiri Lehecka, the No. 11 seed, and Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.
Here are all the matches I can read from the Monte-Carlo 2026 draw: