Gaël Monfils

Gaël Sébastien Monfils (French pronunciation: ​[ɡaɛl mɔ̃ˈfis]; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. Monfils is a former French No. 1, reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 7 and winning 5 singles titles. He was the runner-up at the Paris Masters in 2009 and 2010 and a semifinalist at the 2008 French Open.

Tennis career

Juniors

As a junior Monfils compiled a singles win/loss record of 83–22, reaching the No. 1 junior combined world ranking in February 2004. In 2004 he won the Boys' Singles titles at the Australian Open, the French Open and Wimbledon. He was crowned International Tennis Federation youth world champion.

2002

In 2002, Monfils finished 24th at the Dutch Junior Open. In the same year, he won the German Junior Open (defeating Bayer). Monfils ended the year ranked the no. 4 junior in the world. He also represented France in the junior Davis Cup.

2003

Monfils got off to a positive start in 2003 and earned his first career ATP point at the France Futures No. 13 by reaching the second round. He also reached the second round at France No. 14, Egypt No. 2, and Spain No. 28. In that year, he played a total of nine Futures events. This included a showing in the doubles final at Spain No. 27. In junior events, he was a semifinalist at Orange Bowl (losing to Marcos Baghdatis) and USTA International Winter Championships (losing to Sebastian Rieschick). He reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open juniors tournament (losing to Florin Mergea) and won the doubles title at the Victorian Junior Championships (with Josselin Ouanna). He was No. 21 in junior rankings at the end of the year.

Gaël

Gaël (Gallo: Gaèu) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France.

It lies southwest of Rennes between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Mauron. In the 18th century, a fair was held twice a year in August and October.

Toponymy

Old versions of the place-name include Guadel in 799, Wadel in 816, Vadel in 851, Wael in 1096, Gael as soon as 1112.

Its Breton name is Gwazel, that comes directly from Wadel > Gwadel > Gwazel, in Breton intervocalic [d] becomes [z], like in mezo ″drunk″, Welsh meddw ″drunk″. In French intervocalic [d] disappears totally : Wadel > Wael (Latin cadena > French chaine > English chain) and initial Germanic w- became gu- [gʷ] (+ -a) before becoming simply [g] : Guadel > Gael (cf. Old French guarder > French garder, English guard). The symbol ë means in Modern French that the preceding a has to be pronounced : Ga-el [gaɛl] (not [gɛʲl])

Nevertherless the place-name is not from Breton but from Gallo-Romance Wadellu(m), derived of Old Low Franconian *wad ″ford″ > French gué ″ford″ (Old Norman wei > Norman vey, Picard, Walloon wez). There were always Gallo-Romance speaking communities east of Saint-Brieuc and the Breton languages disappears totally around Gaël in the Middle Ages to be replaced by Gallo.

Gaël (given name)

Gaël (feminine Gaëlle) is a French (Breton) given name. Its etymology is uncertain, it may be related to the ethnonym Gael (Goidel); alternatively, it may be a variant of the name Gwenhael (name of a 6th-century Breton saint).

While the popularltiy of the masculine name Gaël has been consistently at about rank 100 in France during the 2000s, the feminine name was at rank 100 in 2000 but has declined in popularity since, dropping below rank 400 by 2010. The masculine name Gael in the United States rose steeply in popularity during the 2000s; below rank 1,000 before 2002, it rose to rank 146 in 2012.

Gael also sees some use as a feminine given name in the United States, as a variant of Gail, Gayle (short form of Abigail).

People called Gaël (Gael)

Men:

Gál

Gál is a Hungarian surname. Notable people with the surname include:

See also