Cilic and Monfils triumphs in front of their home crowd

 

In the final of today’s Open Sud de France. There was shock for defending champion and world number 9 Richard Gasquet after he suffered a straight sets loss to Gael Monfils. Monfils has had a good 2014 season so far by making the Final in Qatar and the third round of the Australian Open (on both occasions he lost to Rafael Nadal). In today’s match the pace was going steadily with each player holding their serve early on. Then with Gasquet serving at 3-3. Monfils seized his opportunity in the close game by forcing it to deuce and then getting advantage to break Gasquets serve. Monfils then consolidated his break by taking the next game to love and lead 5-3. This then created enough breathing space for the former world number 7 to take the first set 64.

The second set began with a extremely long first game. Richard Gasquet was forced to save three break points that Monfils had generated in a game consisting of 8 deuces. This hold by Gasquet was a big mental boost for the defending champion. The majority of the set went on serve with Gasquet having a far greater problem holding. Then at 4-4 Gasquets fragile serve got beaten down again as Monfils broke him to take an important 5-4 lead. Serving for the match. Monfils didn't let nerves get in his way as he took the game to love to get the title which is now the fifth of his career.

During the match Monfils produced 9 aces and 34 winners compared to Gasquets 0 aces and 17 winners. After his win the world number 30 said quoting atptour.com:-

"I had some back problems at the beginning of the week and I didn't know if I was going to be able to play, so to now be with the trophy is pretty crazy," Monfils told the ATP website. "I have been elevating my game match after match and I am extremely proud in the way I played today."

You can watch Monfils serve it out for the title below:-

  Over in Zagreb at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors. Maric Cilic picked up his forth title at the tournament after beating top seed Tommy Haas. The first set got off to a temperamental start with both players being broken in their first service game. Cilic then found his footing in the match by breaking Haas yet again to give him a 4-2 lead. This lead to Cilic easing his way along the set to take it 63 in only 36 minuets. The only bad thing from a chilic perspective in the first set was his first serve percentage which was only 38%.

In the second set both players were producing better serving which meant that there was no breaks of serves in the first six games. Then at 3-3 Cilic shocked Haas to take 40-0 lead again Haas's serve. The top seed was able to save two of the break points he faced but Cilic was not to be denied as the home favourite broke at the third time trying to be a set and a break up. There was then no looking back for Cilic who took the second set and match to give him his forth title at the tournament. The final scoreline was 63 64 in a match lasting only 1 hour and 21 minuets.The match statistics are below:-

Haas		Gasquet
2	ACES	10
0	Double Faults	4
66.00%	1st serve percentage	52.00%
57.00%	1st serve points won	81.00%
63.00%	2nd serve points won	52.00%
5 out of 8	Break points saved	2 out of 3

After the match Haas was quoted as saying:_

"It's nice to be in the finals after the tough last year I had,"

I played (under) great pressure."