"I had the impression that people wanted me to quit tennis" admits Gael Monfils after slump on comeback

French tennis star Gael Monfils has expressed his opinion that people wanted him to retire last year from professional tennis. The 37-year-old is slowly but surely coming towards the end of his career and he has admitted time and again that he is not far away from calling it quits.

Monfils is currently taking part in the Monte-Carlo Masters where he has booked his place in the second round after beating Aleksandar Vukic with a score of 6-7, 6-3, 7-5. The Paris-born was recently quoted in a report where he stated that he felt people wanted him to retire last year.

“Well, when I said that last year, I was 400 in the world,” he said. “But I'm not even thinking about that, because last year I wrote various articles on LinkedIn and I read them recently, and a year ago I had the impression that people wanted me to quit tennis. I was 400 in the world. People don't let you believe in your own dreams. People don't know you.

“This is why I try to have interactions with my real fans. I don't need to win 20 tournaments, but if I win one match here, another match there, this is what it is about. There are only the legends who won everything. They don't allow you to say, you know, ‘I'm 36, I'm 400 in the world, and I still want to come back to a good level.’ Everybody was laughing at me at the time.”

Monfils will now face the current world number four Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the round of 32 clash on Wednesday. This will be the fourth meeting between the two. In the previous three meetings, the French tennis star had a slight edge with two wins compared to just one win of the one-time Grand Slam winner.