2011 Kooyong AAMI Classic: Gael Monfils dismisses Jurgen Melzer to move into the final
After having his match postponed for two days, Jurgen Melzer finally kicked off 2011 on Friday playing back-to-back matches at the second exhibition event of the year. Melzer is part of eight superstars competing at the invitation
only event, the 2011 Kooyong AAMI Classic in Melbourne.
Ranked eleventh in the world, Melzer is coming into 2011 from one of his best career runs in 2010. Although he put in two final runs in 2010, the number one Austrian was only able to defend his title at the 2010 Bank Austria Tennis
Trophy at Vienna. He failed to clinch the title at the German Open Tennis Championship at Hamburg, losing to Andrey Golubev. Melzer put in exceptional doubles performance for the year winning the Shanghai Masters with Leander Paes. Partnering Philipp Petzschner,
Melzer clinched the doubles crown at Wimbledon and at Zagreb.
Not having played at any of the season opening triad, Melzer kicked off 2011 playing at the Kooyong. Scheduled to play Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last Wednesday, Melzer had his match postponed for two days on account of rain.
Finally having played Tsonga on Friday, the pair played a “pro-set” match where the player to reach eight games first leading by a margin of two games wins. Rushing into a 2-0 lead and maintaining it till the end, Melzer clinched the pro-set 8-6 to secure
a spot for himself in the semis.
Moving ahead, Melzer played Tsonga’s compatriot Gael “Lamonf” Monfils. Ranked only one place below Melzer, Monfils also did not participate at any of the season opening events. Although he clinched the home title at Montpellier
and put in three more final appearances - Paris Masters, Stuttgart and Tokyo - Lamonf had a disappointing end to 2010. Losing his rubber to world number three Novak Djokovic at the Davis Cup final in December, Monfils cost France the championship at the event.
Hopeful for a better start in 2011, Monfils kicked off the year at this event participating for the second time having debuted in 2007. However, his 2007 run at the event was extremely disappointing since he was ousted by Andy
Roddick in straight sets in the first round and ended up in the eighth place losing to Max Mirnyi and Ivan Ljubicic in the play-offs.
His 2011 run at the event started with him playing defending champion and second seed Fernando Verdasco. Bouncing back from being one set down, Monfils was eventually successful in ousting the 2010 champion, prevailing 4-6, 7-6(5),
6-4.
Repeating the same in the semis against Melzer, Monfils lost the first set 2-6 having given Melzer an early 3-0 lead. Bouncing back in the second set, Monfils turned the tables and reversed the score to clinch the second set 6-2.
With one set each, the match entered the decider with both players going neck to neck. Tied throughout the set, the match entered its first tiebreaker. With powerful aces and well placed returns, Monfils took the lead in the tiebreaker and eventually won it
7-4.
This was the pair’s fourth meeting on the court with Monfils maintaining his winning streak. The pair’s last meeting had come in the third round of the 2009 Roland Garros. Enjoying a 3-0 lead in the score then, Monfils extended
his winning streak over Melzer surviving the first set scare.
Monfils moved ahead to play Lleyton Hewitt in the finals while Melzer went ahead to play Nikolay Davydenko for the 3rd / 4th place match.
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