Murray and Monfils build perfect player

Thursday, 26 November 2020 at 15:15

Andy Murray and Gael Monfils tackled the topic of the perfect player during a Twitch stream on the ATP Finals coverage on Sunday.

The pair did commentary while watching Daniil Medvedev against Dominic Thiem and both opted for Nick Kyrgios as having the best service game.

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“Honestly, I would have picked the same, also Kyrgios,” Monfils replied. “For me because it’s definitely tough to read. It’s fast, accurate, he can do anything with it. It’s definitely one of the bigger serves I’ve ever seen on the tour.”

Backhand went to Nishikori for Monfils and Djokovic for Murray: “He’s not an unbelievably aggressive returner, it’s not like he’s hitting lots of clean winners on the return. But he’s just got great depth,” Murray said. “He doesn't miss many. He returns well on the first and second serve, I think overall he’s the best returner. And when he’s on with the return, you’re getting hardly any free points, which is big.”

“He builds a lot of pressure on your serve, to do something, to force a little bit sometimes or even to slow down a bit and mix up the speeds,” Monfils added. “But when he’s on, his return is unbelievable. I’ll go for Novak as well.”

In terms of a forehand, they were also split with Juan Martin del Potro being the pick for Gael Monfils and Rafael Nadal one used by Murray.

Return went both to Djokovic while Volley was Monfils' compatriot Nicolas Mahut and Roger Federer received a mention from Murray.

It was another compatriot pick for drop shot with Benoit Paire seeing some praise from Monfils while it was Fabio Fognini for Murray.

Murray was picked by both the man himself and the Frenchman as best lob while it was the reverse for speed.

Samuel GillEditor-in-Chief

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