Gaël Monfils loses at the start of the Masters 1000 in Madrid against the Italian Luciano Darderi

Fortieth in this week’s ATP rankings, it is not in Madrid that Gaël Monfils will win the points that bring him closer to seeded status at Roland-Garros (May 26-June 9), which will involve the top 32. The French No. 4 was soundly beaten on Wednesday in the first round of the Spanish Masters 1000 by Italian Luciano Darderi (6-4, 6-2).

At 22, Darderi has just entered the top 100 for the first time in his career. It was two months ago, at the end of his dream tournament in Cordoba, where, from qualifying and only 136th ATP, he had paved the way to the trophy. Capable of hitting two top 30s in recent weeks (Sebastian Baez, 26th in Cordoba, then Francisco Cerundolo, 23rd in Houston), this Italian is a specialist on clay, the surface on which he has played 84% of his matches on with professionals.

21 unforced errors in nine games

Able to bomb his forehands and be very solid on the backhand side, he is now 60th in the world. And while Monfils had started the match by winning the first three points, the 37-year-old Frenchman managed to be crushed from the start, scaring himself a little, at 40A, with a jump, to put on a show, including reception was dangerous due to a small unexpected slip.

Very generous (21 unforced errors in the first set alone), Monfils never found the right fuel against this opponent whom he did not damage enough from deep and against whom, despite the advice of the Dutchman Raemon Sluiter, official coach of his wife Elina Svitolina, found he not correct positioning. After a set to nothing after three quarters of play, he returned serve at the start of the second set. So at 0-2. Definitely not in his business, even on the approaches, Monfils put his arms down after 1:17, without ever threatening the Italian about his commitments.