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Monfils, Tsonga, Gasquet and Simon have not risen to that amount, and time is running out.
Tsonga and Simon are both equally 36 (Simon turns 37 in December), and Monfils and Gasquet are 35. They fulfilled as top junior players and normally properly trained and traveled together.
“I’ve acknowledged these guys considering the fact that I was 11 or 12 many years previous,” Tsonga explained by cellular phone from his home in Switzerland. “We grew up with each other. We shared hotel rooms, college, coaching at the federation heart. I bear in mind enjoying Gilles in an beneath-12 tournament. What I bear in mind most was that he was 50 percent my size and more mature than me. And I still assume that I dropped like and love.”
All four were being, at one particular time, ranked inside of the world’s Top 10 on the ATP Tour. Tsonga achieved a occupation-significant No. 5 in 2012 and was runner-up to Djokovic at the 2008 Australian Open. He also arrived at the semifinals there in 2010, as very well as the semifinals twice at Wimbledon and two times at the French Open up. He has 18 job ATP titles. Hindered by health issues and injuries, like a struggle with sickle cell anemia that saps his power, Tsonga has minimal his enjoy this yr.
Monfils continues to entertain crowds with his acrobatic play, which capabilities leaps into the air, balls hit as a result of his legs and a smile that radiates throughout stadiums. A two-time runner-up at the Paris Masters, Monfils was rated No. 6 in 2016. He has arrived at the last of an ATP tournament in every of the final 17 decades. For him, getting the most effective athlete was not often plenty of.
“Maybe I’m more robust physically, but tennis is so substantially far more,” Monfils said. “Mentally it’s more durable. I have been No. 6 in the entire world. Those people five men in entrance of me were being stronger than me mentally, but I have been much better than hundreds of thousands of other men and women.”
Simon strike a profession-higher No. 6 in 2009, but is currently ranked just exterior the Top rated 100. He attained the quarterfinals in Moscow two months in the past and has performed in the Paris Masters each calendar year because 2006 and achieved the semifinals in 2012.
A previous semifinalist at Wimbledon and the United States Open, Gasquet has ended the year in the world’s Major 10 four occasions. When rated No. 7, he achieved the semis at the Paris Masters in 2007.