By Gus "Walk-Off" Fields
NEW YORK — They sang to him first. Then he made them cheer.
Gael Monfils turned 40 on Tuesday night in Flushing Meadows, and the US Open crowd gave him the birthday treatment — a full-throated rendition of "Happy Birthday" ringing off the stands before he'd even served a ball in anger. By the time he'd beaten Adolfo Daniel Vallejo in four sets, he'd given them something better than a song to remember him by.
The win made Monfils the oldest man to claim a match at the US Open since Jimmy Connors did it in 1992 — a 34-year gap bridged by one Frenchman who has always played the game like he was having more fun than anybody else on the court. He has spoken openly about being in the final act of a long career, one built as much on showmanship as on results. That he chose his 40th birthday to remind New York why they've loved him for two decades is the kind of storyline no writer could invent.
Monfils has never been a man for quiet exits. Across his career he's been box office — flying leaps, improbable gets, a flair that filled seats even in years when the results didn't follow. Tuesday night, in front of a crowd that plainly wasn't ready to let him go, the results did follow.
There's no word yet on how deep this run goes for Monfils, or how many more birthdays he'll spend on this court. But for one night in Queens, age was just a number the scoreboard didn't bother to keep.
Final score's the last thing that mattered here.
— Compiled from reporting by BBC Sport and ESPN.
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