2010 Davis Cup Final: Review - Gael Monfils vs. Janko Tipsarevic
The last tennis event of the year is finally here, the 2010 Davis Cup Final. Set in Belgrade, first-time finalists Serbia host nine-time winners France this year. Set over three days from Friday to Sunday, the final event will
have four singles and one doubles match.
Serbia moves into her first Davis Cup final after enjoying a close 3-2 win over the Czech Republic in the semi finals. France on the other hand moved into the finals with a perfect 5-0 win over Russia in the semis.
Kicking off the final event this weekend was French Gael Monfils as he met Serb Janko Tipsarevic for a singles match on Friday. Ranked highest in his team, Monfils was Captain Guy Forget’s obvious choice to start the event. Serbian
captain, Bogdan Obradovic chose not his highest ranked, but his strongest player, Tipsarevic to meet Monfils.
Meeting for the fifth time on the courts, Monfils took a one-match lead going 3-2 in the previously tied head-to-head score. Having met once before at the United States Open, Monfils now leads their season head to head by 2-0.
Monfils, regular ATP season came to an end after he made a final appearance at the BNP Paribas Masters in November. He finished the season with a title win at Montpellier in October. In addition to the Paris Masters, Monfils also
made final appearances at Stuttgart and Tokyo. He finished off the season with an impressive 45-19 mark.
Although not so high on the ATP rankings, Tipsarevic is truly an ace up Obradovic’s sleeve. With 49th position in the ATP rankings, Tipsarevic enjoyed no title wins this season. However, he did make a final appearance
at the UNICEF OPEN in The Netherlands. Though his ATP statistics were truly a disappointment this season, Tipsarevic is a veteran when it comes to the Davis Cup. Having made his debut in 2000, the Serb has played in the Cup for ten years with a 25-10 mark
to show for it.
With so closely matched it was difficult to predict a clear-cut winner. Going into the opener, Tipsarevic opened serve. Winning the game, he went 1-0 in the scores. This was however, the only game the Serb won in the first set.
With Monfils winning the next six straight games, the French enjoyed a breadstick win of 6-1 in the first set taking a one set lead over the Serb. Bouncing back in the second set, Tipsarevic fought long and hard determined not to give up the lead. Ultimately,
the set went into a tiebreaker. Going into the tiebreaker, the score was tied for eight points. Monfils caught a break at 4-4 and then winning the next three consecutive points won the tiebreaker 7-4, going two sets up in the lead. It seemed the two set loss
broke the Serb’s confidence. Although he had a chance of bouncing back, the third set went by in a blur. With a 6-0 win in the third set, Monfils secured his straight set win over the Serb.
With eleven aces and only fourteen unforced errors, Monfils secured a 3-0 win over Tipsarevic in two hours five minutes.
Although Tipsarevic enjoyed the home crowd advantage, Monfils comments about the “pressure of playing in front of the home crowd” got to the Serb. In a verbal joust between the two on Thursday, Tipsarevic laughed off these comments
by his French opponent. The Serb is definitely not laughing now.
With Monfils’s win, France goes 1-0 in her lead against Serbia. Following these two on the courts will be Serbia’s highest ranked, Novak Djokovic as he takes on French Gilles Simon for the second matchup of the Davis Cup Final.
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