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.

This was a much-needed victory for Bublik as he had come into the tournament after struggling at the ‘Sunshine Double’. Notably, he had been knocked out in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters before being eliminated in the opening round at the Miami Open.

A vastly experienced opponent like Monfils could have been difficult to tackle for anyone, but Bublik put in a brilliant performance on the court to record a well-deserved win. Having advanced to the Last 16, Bublik will now be facing the winner of the clash between Jiri Lehecka and Alejandro Tabilo that will be held on April 8.

On the other hand, Monfils has exited the Monte Carlo Open for the final time in his 22-year long career. Though he had begun the tournament on a positive note and had recorded a hard-fought 6-7, 6-1, 6-4 win over Tallon Griekspoor, he failed to make it to the latter stages.

Having announced last year that he will be retiring from tennis after the end of the 2026 season, Monfils’ farewell tour isn’t quite going the way as he would have wanted.

Gael Monfils suffers a series of early exits in final season

Monfils has played five tournaments so far this year but is yet to make it past the second round. The former World No. 6’s season had commenced on a dismal note as he suffered a first-round defeat to Fabian Marozsan at the ASB Classic.

Things didn’t get better at the Australian Open as Monfils would once again bow out in the opening round after a 7-6, 5-7, 4-6, 5-7 loss to Dane Sweeny. Though Monfils did rack up his first victory of the year by downing Damir Dzumhur 6-4, 7-6 in the Mexican Open, he got eliminated in the very next match by Valentin Vacherot.

The Frenchman had begun his Indian Wells campaign on a high and had recorded a one-sided 6-3, 6-4 victory against Alexis Galarneau. However, his journey would once again end in the second round as Felix Auger Aliassime handed him a 7-6, 3-6, 4-6 defeat.

The first-round loss in Monte Carlo means that Monfils has a win-loss record of 2-5 so far this season. It remains to be seen if he will be able to improve his form in the upcoming ATP tournaments on the calendar.