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After a lacklustre performance by Gael Monfils, the Frenchman wasn’t the only one with egg on his face. Only 24 hours earlier his coach, Roger Rasheed, reignited a slanging match with the Bernard Tomic camp, which dates back to 2009.
He declared Tomic would never be any better than a top 30 player and played “junk” tennis.
These statements may prove to be true but, if Tomic plays junk then what Monfils has served up for the better part of this tournament has been garbage.
The world number 12 should have been packing his bags after round one, however was saved by a Themio De Bakker choke. There was no such luck when Stanislas Wawrinka took advantage of 34 unforced errors to send the Frenchman packing in straight sets.
This is not a once off either. In fact, it’s a weekly occurrence that Monfils will at some point go walkabout during a tournament and on most occasions, never return.
This begs the question, where to from here?
It’s time for some serious work to be done on the mental side of his game. Too many times he will try and get a cheap point with a poorly played drop shot when the pressure is on, or stand at the back of the court and hope his amazing athletic ability will enable him to outlast his opponent.
The greater problem is if you took a snapshot of the Monfils game three years ago you could pinpoint the exact same issues.
This has to leave Rasheed under enormous pressure. Two tournament wins in the last three years and one grand slam quarter final in his past six major outings spells trouble and history shows when a tennis player is in trouble, the first thing to go is the coach.
Rasheed may be wishing his charge played a little more “junk” tennis of his own, as it would have been a much higher standard then what he brought to the table in his 2011 Australian Open campaign.
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