Monfils becomes oldest ATP Tour champion with Auckland win

With victory at the ASB Classic in Auckland, Gael Monfils became the oldest player to win an ATP Tour singles title.

France’s Monfils beat Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 6-3 6-4 in the final to claim his 13th tour-level title.

Monfils, 38, is the oldest singles champion since the 1990 formation of the ATP Tour, becoming the oldest player to do so.

Roger Federer, the legendary Swiss skier, won the Basel title in 2019 at the age of 38 years and two months.

“It means a lot. Age is a number”, said Monfils.

“But we keep working. I have been playing high-quality tennis this week, and I have been very happy because I keep believing that I can do it.

Monfils becomes the oldest player to win a tour-level title since Ken Rosewall, 43, won in Hong Kong in 1977.

“I don’t win a lot. It’s been more than 20 years I’ve been playing and it’s just 13 times I ended up winning”, Monfils added.

The Australian Open, which starts on Sunday, will now take the world no. 52 to Melbourne, where he won his first title in 2005.

Elsewhere, Madison Keys beat top seed Jessica Pegula in an all-American final to win the Adelaide International.

Keys overcame a leg injury to win 6-3 4-6 6-1 and claim her ninth WTA title.

The world number 20 recovered from an off-court medical timeout in the second set by storming through the final set in just 26 minutes to claim victory.

Pegula, the US Open’s winner, had a knee injury that prevented her from playing in her first tournament since November’s WTA Finals.