There is no longer any doubt (and perhaps there never was!) that Novak Djokovic is Gael Monfils’ worst nightmare, during the Frenchman’s entire career.
The data is unequivocal: Gael has suffered 20 defeats – from 2005 to 2025, in twenty years – in 20 matches played in his career on the ATP Tour against the Serbian champion. In these confrontations, the 24-time Slam champion has always been a sentence for his rival and has maintained an impressive and probably inimitable streak of successes.
The last challenge and victory of the player from Belgrade came on Thursday 2 January 2025 on the Pat Rafter Arena in Brisbane, a tournament in which Nole gained access to the quarterfinals, where the next opponent will be Reilly Opelka. The Frenchman gave in after a double 6-3, thus not stopping the stream of defeats suffered.
Novak Djokovic, Brisbane 2025© Stream screenshot
No rivalry in history has been as unequal as that between Djokovic and Monfils, who reached a 20-0 record in head-to-head matches. Rafael Nadal only came close with another Frenchman, Richard Gasquet, with an overall 18-0 that cannot be improved because Rafa withdrew from the Davis Cup Finals 2024 while Richard will do so at the French Open 2025.
Other duels instead stopped at 17-0: Borg-Gerulaitis, Federer-Ferrer and again Roger with Youzhny.
There is also an exception between the Serbian and the Frenchman that the ATP does not consider in the total calculation: in fact, Monfils has beaten Djokovic once in an official match, right in their very first meeting. In 2004, Gael won 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 in an ITF Futures played in Italy. A peculiarity also present in the H2H of Nadal and Gasquet, who won a match in a Challenger tournament before suffering 18 consecutive defeats.
Por mucho que busquen NO hay en la historia del tenis una rivalidad tan DESIGUAL como la de Djokovic y Monfils.
En las 20 veces que se han enfrentado, las 20 veces ha ganado Novak.
El francés tuvo 3 match points en Dubái 2020. Fue lo más cerca que estuvo de ganar al serbio. pic.twitter.com/KV8z5Vri3N
— José Morón (@jmgmoron) January 2, 2025
Tennis World USA