Andy Murray vs Gael Monfils – Rogers Cup preview
In a clash of the counterpuncher and the crowd-pleaser, defending champion Andy Murray takes on 15th seed Gael Monfils in the third round of the Rogers Cup in Toronto today.
And it’s a must-win clash for the British No. 1 as he heads towards the US Open without a coach, after ending a two-and-a-half-year working relationship with Miles Maclagan last month, and without a title to his name this season.
The good news though is that Murray seems to have recovered from the form slump that followed his loss to Roger Federer in the Australian Open final, with a Wimbledon semi-final showing and an appearance in the Los Angeles final in his first tournament since the grass court Grand Slam indicating the Scot is now once again headed in the right direction.
If that is indeed the case, then overcoming Monfils as he plays his first tournament since retiring from the final on clay in Stuttgart with an ankle injury during July should be a challenge that Murray can meet.
Sure, the world No. 4 started slowly against an in-form Xavier Malisse in his opening match in Toronto, going down a break in the first set, but Murray turned that around to take a 7-5, 6-2 victory as he ultimately proved too strong for his Belgian opponent.
Now the usually defensively-minded Murray faces a player in Monfils who could not take a more contrasting approach to how he plays his tennis, a born entertainer with talent to burn but who has, perhaps, so far failed to extract the maximum reward from it.
“He’s [Monfils is] a great athlete, moves very well... incredibly quick around the court,” Murray told the BBC. “He’s got a very long reach, he jumps very high as well so it’s tough to get the ball past him, and he can come up with some great shots from very tough positions.”
That athletic prowess and ability to produce a big winner have helped Monfils win his way past Murray once before, in the first round of the 2006 French Open, but given that clay is Murray’s weakest surface it’s difficult to read too much into that.
A clearer picture of how Murray and Monfils stack up against one another can perhaps be gleaned from their career head-to-head record, where the Briton leads 2-1, and importantly took a 6-2, 6-2 victory in their only previous match against one another on hard courts, at the Madrid Masters in 2008.
If Murray’s Wimbledon and Los Angeles form holds true here, the win-loss ledger should be 3-1 in his favour after this match.
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