Veterans Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka have created very personal legacies

LONDON – As a Wednesday night second-round match between Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka sprinted to its conclusion on Thursday afternoon, as these two veterans engaged in one multi-layered all-court rally after another on Wimbledon’s Court 2, one word came to mind: inspiration. The inspiration to excel. The inspiration to perform. The inspiration to play.

The Wawrinka-Monfils match had been suspended last night shortly after 9:20 p.m., with Monfils leading two sets to love and Wawrinka poised to serve at 5-all in the third. The two resumed at nearly 3:00 this afternoon. Following a Wawrinka hold, Monfils took 11 of the last 14 points, closing out a 7-6 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory with a feathery forehand drop shot. All told, the match lasted three minutes past the two-hour mark.

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Wawrinka is 39 years old; Monfils is 37. So what if each is past his prime? What mattered over the course of this two-day match was the chance to see two thoroughly experienced athletes relish the chance to reveal themselves and engage with one another in the simple yet powerful medium of competition.

At this stage of their careers, the circle of time completes. Once, there was a young boy who lived for the chance to hit tennis balls and throw himself into battle. Then came year after year in pursuit of results and the physical and mental challenges of a highly competitive, global solo effort. Now, as the end nears, tennis is once again less about labor and more about the joy felt by that child.

Afterwards, when I asked Monfils what he continues to enjoy about playing at venues like Wimbledon, he told me, “I love the competition. I love the sport. I love the game... it's a feeling that you can't have anywhere else.”

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Prior to this encounter, these two had collectively played 1,815 matches. Amazingly, only six had come versus each other, their rivalry deadlocked at three wins apiece. Then again, perhaps this relative paucity makes sense, for while over the last two decades, Wawrinka and Monfils have occupied parallel tracks, the roads they’ve traveled have been greatly different.

Each was an accomplished junior. In 2003, Wawrinka won the junior title at Roland Garros. But a year later, Monfils made an even bigger statement, earning junior triumphs at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and Wimbledon. The combination of those results and Monfils’ capacity for dazzling shot-making raised expectations that a new champion would in time blossom.

Soon enough, as Monfils made his way into the pro ranks, he was clustered with compatriots Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Gilles Simon as the new incarnation of France’s iconic “Four Musketeers”—the quartet of French greats who’d dominated the majors in the late ’20 and early ‘30s. But at heart, the contemporary incarnation Monfils theoretically occupied was more something cooked up in a conference room than a sustainable cohort that marched in sync to repeated triumphs. Put bluntly, the four embarked on their own highly different journeys.

Consider Monfils’ trek an endlessly engaging carnival ride, filled with a great many twists and turns. “Little surprises around every corner,” candy man Willy Wonka once said, “but nothing dangerous.” The highlights included a pair of Slam semis (’08 Roland Garros, ’16 US Open), 12 tournament titles, a career high of No. 6 in the world and a current spot at No. 33. There were also frequent injuries, then comebacks.

If it was ill-advised to invest oneself in Monfils’ progress the way you would with a consistent performer such as David Ferrer, the saving grace was that Monfils was never boring, ceaselessly gracious, and well aware of the path he’d chosen. As Monfils once said, “Some people will say about me, ‘If he was more serious he would play much better tennis.’ But I would be different. Maybe I would not have my instincts right. And if I’m too crazy, it’s not good either. So the balance is never easy to find. I am as I am.”

While it was easy for Monfils to concurrently don and discard national expectations, Wawrinka faced a much different homeland challenge.

To be a Swiss player in the early 21st century was akin to being a band from Liverpool in the ‘60s: one globally beloved performer known as The Beatles blotted out the sun and potentially left all others feeling massively inferior. A month after Wawrinka lifted that trophy in Paris, Roger Federer won the first of his eight Wimbledon titles. Less than four years after winning the Roland Garros juniors, Wawrinka had cracked the Top 30. Yet amid the transcendent Federer, how could a Swiss contender reveal not just competence, but brilliance of his own?

Though it took a while, in time Wawrinka did just that. Not until 2013, the year he turned 28, did Wawrinka reach a Grand Slam singles semifinal. In the quarters of that year’s US Open, Wawrinka defeated reigning Wimbledon champion Andy Murray in straight sets. There followed three dazzling efforts, beginning with a title run at the ’14 Australian Open, a triumph at Roland Garros in ’15 and a third major at the US Open in ’16. None came easy. Wawrinka beat Djokovic to win all three of those Slams and also earned wins over Nadal in the Australian final and versus Federer in the quarters of Roland Garros. Those accomplishments should eventually earn Wawrinka a spot in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

“I enjoy the suffering,” Wawrinka once said about the effort it took to succeed as a pro. “It’s something quite natural for me to go on the court and suffer, and to go to the gym and to suffer, and to know the only way to get better is to work out—that’s what I like.”

Another representative quote—etched in a tattoo on Wawrinka’s arm—came from the writer Samuel Beckett: “Ever tried, ever failed, no matter, try again, fail again, fail better.”

It's tempting to compare and contrast Monfils and Wawrinka in a rather rudimentary way, juxtaposing the dashing Monfils with the diligent Wawrinka. But that wouldn’t be fair to either. Given how well Monfils continues to play at the age of 37—including a title run last year in Stockholm—he's proven quite sturdy and dedicated. As for Wawrinka, consider the remarkable way his mix of artistry and effort has crafted one of the greatest backhands in tennis history. That too requires a special level of talent and creativity.

Alongside the inspired way each of has conducted himself for so long come other tennis assets: freedom and choice. What more than tennis better showcases the purity and power of individualism?

Perhaps most of all, what Monfils and Wawrinka share is a personal vision of how expressive tennis can be. Celebrate tennis, a glorious vehicle for non-conformists.