Roland Garros 2013 Day 2: Monfils battles past Berdych

Monfils put everything into his superb victory over Berdych

Roland Garros 2013 Day 2: Monfils battles past Berdych

An action packed day two at Roland Garros saw both reigning champions open their campaigns with differing levels of difficulty. 

Seven-time champion Rafael Nadal was pushed hard by hard hitting German Daniel Brands who took the opening set 6-4 and led 3-0 in the second set tie-break. 

 

Nadal was feeling the strain but fought his way through



Had the World No.59 taken some of the next few crucial exchanges Nadal could have been in even more trouble but the 3rd seed raised his game having levelled the match and broke at the start of the 3rd and 4th sets before coming through 4-6, 7-6(7-4), 6-4, 6-3.

In contrast No.2 seed Maria Sharapova was relatively untroubled in her 6-2, 6-1 victory over the unorthodox Su-Wei Hsieh who on paper looked to be a tricky draw.

There were a number of minor upsets with 22nd seed Ekaterina Makarova, Julia Goerges (24) and Tamira Paszek (28) all being dispatched in straight sets.

In the Men's draw 31st seed Marcel Granollers lost out against compatriot Feliciano Lopez, in a match held over due to bad light on day one, while Dusseldorf winner and No.17 seed Juan Monaco failed to capitalise on a two set lead as he fell 4-6, 4-6, 7-6(7-4), 6-4, 6-4 to Daniel Gimeno-Traver. 

Match of the day: Monfils (WC) vs Berdych (5)

On paper the meeting between fifth seed Tomas Berdych, a semi-finalist in 2010, and French wild card and 2008 semi-finalist Gael Monfils looked to be the match of the first round in the Men's draw and boy did it deliver.

Monfils, a finalist in Nice last week, had won just one set in three previous meetings between the pair but went toe to toe with the World No.6 from the word go.



The Frenchman unleashed some powerful backhands

In a gripping first set tie-break Monfils put the disappointment of four missed set points behind him and clinched it on his fifth when Berdych fired a forehand wide.

The former World No.7 carried that momentum into the second set by claiming an early break.  The 26 year-old maintained the advantage and dropped just one point on serve in the set as he built a two set lead.  

However Berdych was not about to go down without a fight and the Czech broke Monfils in the second game of the third en route to building a 3-0 lead.



Berdych played some excellent tennis to level the match



The fifth seed continued to be in the ascendancy in the third but could not serve it out at 5-3 and Monfils came roaring back but fell behind early in the ensuing tie-break.  Berdych took it 7-3.

The fourth set was equally tight with both players largely dominant on serve.  The tall Czech twice served to stay in the match with Monfils coming within two points from winning in the twelfth game. 

Berdych hung on and took advantage of Monfils missing a backhand pass in the breaker to level the match.   

Berdych appeared to have the advantage in the decider with Monfils lacking matches at this level however the Czech failed to break in the sixth game as Monfils hung on from bravely from love-40.

The 26 year-old Frenchman, junior champion in Paris in 2004, held serve to stay alive at 4-5 and then played some aggressive tennis to crucially break the Berdych serve in the eleventh game.  The wild card served out the match impressively to come through 7-6(10-8), 6-4, 6-7(3-7), 6-7(4-7), 7-5 after four hours and four minutes of play on Court Philippe Chatrier.

While Berdych will now prepare for the grass court season Monfils can look ahead to a testing second round meeting with Ernests Gulbis which promises to be another pulsating battle.

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