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."
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