Wednesday, 29 May 2013

Roland Garros 2013 Day 4: Monfils comes through against Gulbis


Gael Monfils beats Ernests Gulbis at French Open
Monfils backed up his win over Berdych with a four set defeat of Ernests Gulbis

Roland Garros 2013 Day 4: Monfils comes through against Gulbis

Day 4 at the 2013 French Open Championships saw the tournament play catch-up as the first round was completed and the second got underway.

In the women's draw Victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitova made their delayed first appearances and got opening wins under their belts.  Petra had yet another wobble against former top 15 Frenchwoman Aravane Rezai. 

I wish the Czech could cut down on her errors and these walkabouts as when she puts it together ala Wimbledon 2011 I still think she's the second best player in women's tennis.

Serena slammed many ferocious shots past Garcia

The best player in women's tennis looked awesome in her second round 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Caroline Garcia.


Serena just simply looks a cut above everybody else at the moment and it clearly is going to take something extraordinary - either a stunning meltdown or a truly incredible performance from someone else - to derail her from a second Roland Garros crown and a 16th major title. 
It was wonderful to see British No.2 Heather Watson back on the match court after her recent struggles with glandular fever.  As usual she fought hard and gave everything but came up slightly short against Vogele.  Considering it was her first match back that was perhaps on a surprise.


Watson battled bravely in her comeback match

The women's draw also saw the first top 10 scalp as Bojana Jovanovski repeated her Rome victory over 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki who really has to get back to the drawing board.

There were no such surprises in the Men's singles draw as Roger Federer led the top 3 seeds in the bottom half of the draw into round three with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and David Ferrer also coming through in straight sets.

Federer next faces 30th seeded Julien Benneteau in the last 32 and will hope to avenge his loss to the Frenchman at Rotterdam earlier this year.  If it's anything like their encounter last year in the same round at Wimbledon it could be quite a battle for the World No.3 after he barely escaped that one 4-6 6-7(3-7) 6-2 7-6(8-6) 6-1.
Match of the day: Monfils (WC) vs Gulbis (U)

Another Frenchman again featured in a thrilling match on day four as for the second time during the championships 2008 semi-finalist Gael Monfils took centre stage on Court Philippe Chatrier.

This time the energetic 26 year-old was up against the very dangerous Latvian Ernests Gulbis who twice come close to victory over Nadal in recent months.  It promised to be a terrific encounter and so it proved.

A very tight opening set was decided by a tie-break which Gulbis edged by seven points to five. When the Latvian took an early break at the start of the second set he looked to be taking a stranglehold on the match but he could not maintain that form.
 
Monfils broke back and broke again to level the match.  The third set was gripping and proved to be pivotal.
Again Gulbis broke first and was again pegged back by the Frenchman who then broke again to go up 5-2.  The Latvian held to force Monfils to serve out the set. 

 In that ninth game Monfils led 40-0 but Gulbis showed considerable determination to fend off the set points with some big hitting and he broke back.

When the 24 year-old levelled at 5-5 and held break points in the eleventh game he suddenly had the momentum.  He was unlucky not to convert one of the break points as a huge crosscourt backhand had Monfils desperately stretched but his defensive backhand reply trickled off the netcord and Gulbis was left helpless.

Whether Gulbis would have held to go two sets to one up we'll never know but the set went to another breaker and this time it was Monfils who took it with a stunning stretched forehand volley winner.

The Latvian was holed beneath the waterline and Monfils broke twice in the fourth to seal a thoroughly entertaining 6-7(5-7) 6-4 7-6(7-4) 6-2 victory to back his defeat of Berdych in the opening round.

The 2004 junior champion next faces 32nd seed Tommy Robredo and I think he'll continue his winning ways in that one.

Hopefully Gulbis will be a factor at Wimbledon and he may well be seeded. When he puts it all together he certainly plays top 10 tennis.
Follow me on Twitter for all my thoughts on the action in Paris https://twitter.com/TennisCJD

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