Monfils on Mpetshi Perricard: "I think he's fantastic".

Gaël Monfils is off to a perfect start to 2025. In Auckland, the 38-year-old Frenchman won the 13th title of his career on the ATP circuit after overcoming Zizou Bergs.

Now it's on to the Australian Open, where a 100% French clash awaits him in the first round against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.

In an interview with L'Équipe, Monfils spoke about his young opponent, seeded number 30 in Melbourne after making excellent progress last year.

"It's going to be cool. It's always fun. I've played millions of Grand Slam matches against friends. This will be one more. It's going to be fun to play him.

It's the first time we've played each other in a tournament. We've trained together quite a few times, and exchanged a lot of information over the last year, when he first arrived.

I think he's fantastic, he makes me laugh a lot. He's very nice, he's got a great sense of humour, he's got a good head on his shoulders.

I really like what he does, I like his project, this team he has with Manu Planque. It's cool to see him play well and it's cool to face him.

He's enormously talented, in many areas of the game in fact. A lot of people want to label Giovanni too quickly.

For my part, I'm going to give it my all and we'll see what happens," said Monfils.