Gael Monfils triumphed and won the hard court tennis tournament in Auckland (New Zealand), which has a prize fund of 680,140 dollars. With his success, he became the oldest ATP winner in almost half a century, BTA reports.
Monfils, who is 38 years and 132 days old, won in the final against Belgian qualifier Zizou Bergs 6:3, 6:4 in 1:38. It comes a day before the Australian Open in Melbourne. Monfils won his 13th career title and is the oldest player to win an ATP final since 43-year-old Ken Rosewall won the Hong Kong title in 1977. The Frenchman bowed to the crowd after the victory and said he was proud to win at an age when others would have hung up their rackets. "Age is just a number, but I keep working. I keep believing that I can play high-quality tennis and I showed that this week, so I'm very happy," he said. Monfils won his first ATP title in 2005. "It was 20 years ago, but I still have the passion to play tennis, I still feel like I hit the ball really well." "I hope there's a lot more to come," he added.
The Frenchman will climb 11 places to 41st in the world rankings with his victory and will face compatriot Giovanni Mpetshi Perikar in the first round of the Australian Open.