Je m'appelle Gael Monfils

I was watching Gael Monfils vs Andy Roddick play this afternoon in the French Open. If you know me, you know that I am a big fan of Gael Monfils. He's tall, he's lanky, he's unconventional, he's got enough charisma to make himself, Jeff Kent and Bruce Bowen likable, and he plays with amazing energy and enthusiasm. He's a whole lot of fun to watch, and in my opinion he's a breath of fresh air in a sport filled with guys who are entirely too serious about everything (Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, to name just a few)

During the course of his domination of Roddick, he waved to the fans to get them excited and cheering. Monfils is French. By wave, I mean the gesture that is analogous to telling them to "get up". I hope you know what I'm talking about.

Patrick McEnroe described his actions as "bush league" I disagree. Monfils is playing in front of his home crowd, he's beating a higher seed, and he's playing well. He's excited. Is it so wrong in tennis to show emotion and enthusiasm?

Andy Roddick didn't seem to have a problem with it.

What he did seem to have a problem with is the lack of light. The Monfils-Roddick match ended at right around 9:34PM. Had Roddick been able to extend the third set a bit longer, they would have suspended play and finished it up tomorrow. Even though Roddick was down by 2 sets, if he could have at least delayed the conclusion of the match his chances would have been much better to come back and win.

The possibility for this match to be suspended is simply unacceptable. The reason this happened is because they schedule 4 matches for a court, but only a strict start time for the first match. Each subsequent match starts after the conclusion of the one before it. The best matches are saved for last.

If there are no lights, you should schedule the first match of the day earlier, or make the best match of the day second to last and have a match of lesser consequence be the final match. The best players should not have to get their matches suspended.

Though I hope Federer can get a French Open title before he retires, I would love to see Gael move past him and go on to win it all in front of the home crowd.

Gael Monfils vs Roger Federer June 3rd. Should be good. You should witness Monfils for yourself if you get the chance.

*edit: Gael Monfils-Roger Federer should be on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD at around 8am Pacific, 11am Eastern.