NEW YORK – Through the first five service games of Friday’s U.S. Open semifinal, Gael Monfils looked like he didn’t belong on the same planet as Novak Djokovic – let alone the same tennis court.
Djokovic, the world’s top-ranked player and who had beaten Monfils all 12 times they had previously faced one another, had swept those opening five games, and looked well on his way to his latest easy match en route to a seventh trip to a U.S. Open final of his brilliant career.
So, with nothing to lose at that point, Monfils decided to change tactics. He began to look lackadaisical, hitting casual returns. It seemed like an act of desperation. Monfils later admitted it was.
“I had to change,” Monfils said later from the air-conditioned comfort of an interview room, in what had to be a welcome change from the sweltering 90-plus degree heat and brutal humidity he played through on the court inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. “That’s tough because you’re not ready to see that.
“So I tried to get in his head and tried to create something new for him to see, and I did. The guy is too good, playing clean . . . and, if you’re playing bad, you need to change.”
It was just one of many twists in turns in a truly bizarre match, one Djokovic would eventually win, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, after 2 hours 32 minutes in a match that left many confused – and some enraged – by the time it had ended.
In the late semifinal, Stan Wawrinka outslugged Japanese sixth seed Kei Nishikori 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 in energy-sapping humidity to set up a final against Djokovic.
The third-seeded Swiss took a while to get untracked as 2014 U.S. Open runner-up Nishikori played a near flawless opening set of the semi-final with just two errors.
In the first semi, no one was angered more than John McEnroe, who spent the vast majority of the match excoriating Monfils for the way he was playing on ESPN’s broadcast of the match.
“I’ve seen strategy changes,” McEnroe said. “But this tops everything. Even Sigmund Freud couldn’t figure this out.
“This is bordering on unprofessional. The only reason I’m saying borderline is because it’s working.”
When Monfils arrived in the interview room after the match, he was hit with a series of leading questions from reporters about his play:
“It seemed, at times, you were having problems competing.”
“You didn’t seem to be able to give it your full effort.”
“Were there any times that you were not able to try your best?”
“Do you think the strategy to upset Novak didn’t work?”
At first, Monfils dutifully answered each query. Eventually, though, he lost patience.
“Everyone is not doing [these tactics] because of all the questions they’re gonna receive,” he said. “I know it is not natural, because the first question was like, ‘You’re not competing.’
“[Expletive] yes, I’m competing. The guy is too good . . . I just had to change.”
Eventually, the conversation was brought around to McEnroe’s comments, which led to a lengthy response from Monfils in which he expressed his disappointment for the way McEnroe talked about him.
“I like John. I think he’s a great person. I have nothing personal to him, so I’m very sad to hear that,” Monfils said. “I’m very sad to learn that such a legend criticized me.
“What I can say to John is, ‘I want to be the best.’ It’s tough . . . I try my best.”
For his part, Djokovic admitted Monfils’s tactics managed to get into his head on multiple occasions – both in the first set, when he went from down 5-0 to within 5-3 and holding two break points over Djokovic, and in the third, when Monfils went from being down 2-0 to winning five straight service games to eventually win the set.
After Djokovic, who needed multiple visits from the trainer throughout the match to work on both of his shoulders, lost that third set, he literally tore his white polo shirt off his body in frustration over the way he’d let the set slip away from him.
“At that one or two games, yeah, I allowed [him to get in my head],” Djokovic said. “But it happens. It was just very uncharacteristic, or unusual, basically at the beginning of the first set to move around like that, and play like that.
“But it shouldn’t be my concern. That should be on my side . . . luckily, I managed to get it back.”
Monfils admitted he came into the match thinking it was a potential strategy for him to use, referencing the fact he’d never beaten Djokovic in a singles match before, and said he even motioned to his coaches that he was shifting to “Plan B” after falling down 5-0 in that first set.
It was just the latest unpredictable moment in what has been an unpredictable career for the Frenchman, who has long been one of the most interesting and charismatic players on the men’s tour.
“I did it because I want to win,” he said. “I just want to find a solution. Sorry if it wasn’t [an academic approach].
“I got a little bit of my instinct and flair and to slow the game down, to make him play, to make him come in.
“At the end, he was just too good.”