It was not an ideal day in the office for Gael Monfils: In the round of 16 at the ATP hard court tournament in Indian Wells, the Frenchman saw no land against the young and up-and-coming Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz (5: 7, 1: 6), especially in the second set. In the subsequent interview with the French daily sports newspaper "L'Equipe", the Parisian even said that the 18-year-old had literally "eaten" him physically.

However, Monfils didn't suffer too much because of the defeat - the Frenchman continued: "At some point I didn't go with him anymore. I had the feeling that what he showed today was just too hard for me. But it's beautiful. I said to myself, 'Damn, that's cool.' A lot of people saw tonight's show. I really appreciate it. Congratulations Carlos!"

Blake and Murray are ahead of Monfils

That's what a fair loser sounds like, already looking forward to playing against Alcaraz next time to be able to offer him something different. What the 35-year-old was able to come up with this time was one of the fastest forehand shots ever measured on the ATP tour. At 199 kilometers per hour, Monfils gave the yellow felt ball a whiplash, which found the sideline directly.

So far only James Blake 2011 at the US Open (201 km/h) and Andy Murray 2011 in Cincinnati (200 km/h) unpacked faster shots. So the record for the darling of the public is not quite over, but hopefully there will still be a few opportunities to add the missing two to three km/h.

Here the single tableau from Indian Wells.

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