It’s a small earthquake for French tennis. Adrian Mannarino will dethrone Gaël Monfils from his status as number 1 tricolor which he has held since March 2019. When the new ATP rankings are published on Monday, the 34-year-old will be the highest ranked tricolor at 42nd place in the world. The French still benefited from a small alignment of the planets to become number 1 without playing this week. Mannarino first took advantage of the prolonged absence of Gaël Monfils, touched in the foot and now the father of a little girl alongside Elina Svitolina. “La Monf” will fall to 44th place in the world on Monday.
Another tricolor, Arthur Rinderknech, could also claim this new status if he won the ATP 250 tournament in Gijón. After a superb run during which he notably beat Pablo Carreno Busta by saving 9 match points, the 27-year-old player finally lost in the semi-final against the American Sebastian Korda in 2 sets (7/6 ( 2) 6/3). The French number 3 therefore remains at the gates of the Top 50.
French number 1… for how long?
It is a just reward for Mannarino, the most consistent French player this year with no less than seven quarter-finals this season, and the culmination of his second career title at Winston-Salem. A new role as boss of French tennis which does not particularly interest the first concerned. “To be honest, that doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. At one time, I was already higher in the ranking (22nd in March 2018) and I was not number one in France. If I could choose between the two, I would choose a better ranking”, explained Adrian Mannarino to the microphones of our German colleagues from tennisnet.
In addition to defending his future status, Adrian Mannarino must also manage a back injury contracted after the ATP 500 in Astana: “It all depends on my body. It no longer works like before. I continue to work hard in the gym, but I think I can still improve my ranking. The 34-year-old could still aim for participation in the Basel tournament, then in the Rolex Paris Masters to end his season in style in front of the French public.