‘Carlos Alcaraz is on track to win number of Grand Slams to become a legend’, says Gael Monfils

Ewan West 12 Aug 2023 12:07 PM

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain celebrates

Gael Monfils believes Carlos Alcaraz has the goal of becoming a legend and thinks he is on track to win the number of Grand Slam titles needed to achieve this.

The 36-year-old also revealed he knew the 20-year-old star had “something different” after facing him for the only time last year.

Alcaraz defeated Monfils 7-5, 6-1 in the last 16 of the 2022 Indian Wells Masters shortly before winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Miami. He has since gone on to win two Grand Slams and 12 ATP titles, and is the current world No 1.

The Spaniard was beaten 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 by world No 14 Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals of this week’s Masters 1000 event in Toronto.

Monfils also fell in the last eight of the Canadian tournament, losing 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to world No 8 Jannik Sinner.

The Frenchman, who is currently ranked 276th following injury struggles, discussed his practice session with Alcaraz in Toronto earlier this week.

“Yeah. Carlos is a great guy. Obviously, a great kid. You know, he’s beginning of a big legend of the tennis, you know. I think definitely a champion already, but it’s, I think his goal is to become a legend like those legends that we have in our game. And it was just a great. It was great,” said the Frenchman in a press conference.

“I played him it was last year, I think I played him last year. And when I finished the match, I told everybody, I said, ‘Whoa, look out. He’s going to be – he is different.’

“When I played him, you know, I felt like his ball was different. His movement was different. His mentality was different. So I could just, I was just happy to just say, it happened to him quick. But I felt his ball already, so I knew he has something different.”

The former world No 6 also spoke about what he feels it takes to become a tennis legend and backed Alcaraz to accomplish this.

“Yeah, I think every player wants to become a champion, legend, whatever. He’s already [a] champion, you know. When you’re [a] champion, for me, when you win Slams, and he already won Slams. And I think he stated already that he wants to win a lot of Grand Slam[s],” continued Monfils.

“You know, to win a lot of Grand Slam[s] is to become a legend. So it’s not even him wants to become a legend. But I think if you want to, if you win more than certain number of Slam[s], you become a legend.

“So I feel like he’s on a track to win the number for him to become a legend. But don’t put pressure on him (smiling).”