Frederico Gil cruises into the third round at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters
Portuguese qualifier Frederico Gil upset world number 35, German Florian Mayer in straight sets on Wednesday. He registered a 7-5, 6-1 win over the German to advance into the third round of the 2011 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters in
Monaco.
Gil trashed the German with a breadstick in 84 minutes and extended his lead in their head to head series by 2-0. Ranked 82nd in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, the Portuguese last overpowered Mayer
on the clay courts at Portugal in a three set thriller last year.
The Portuguese hasn’t had much progress this season so far but made a quarter-final berth at Le Gosier Challenger. He entered this tournament confidently and dumped Argentinean Federico Del Bonis and Italian Flavio Cipolla in the
qualifiers to reach the main draw. He then overpowered Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky in the first round to reach this spot and is yet to lose a set in this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.
The 26-year-old displayed tremendous skills in the opening set and although he lost his opening serve, he quickly snatched the break back and squared the scores at 2-2. Gil then broke Mayer’s serve again in the sixth game and extended
the lead to 4-2 but he failed to save the breakpoint he faced in the proceeding game and eventually lost his serve. The Portuguese then raised his level of game and converted another breakpoint to his advantage in the eleventh game to take the lead again.
He eventually clinched the set by holding his serve in the follow-up game with a 7-5 score line.
The Portuguese carried his winning momentum in the second set and broke the German’s serve in the very first game. He went on savage mode and reeled off the first four games in a row. Gil after keeping his serve in the sixth game
with a 5-1 score line, he broke Mayer’s serve for the third time to seal the set with a breadstick.
Gil smacked two ferocious aces and had a much better first serve share of 66 percent as compared to German’s 48 percent. He also earned a convincing 61 percent win on it and converted six out of eight breakpoint opportunities to
his advantage to help him win easily.
He will next face the winner of the match between 8th seeded French Gael Monfils and Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver.
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