Gael Monfils beats Radek Stepanek to reach the quarterfinal – German Tennis Championships 2011
Opening match of the 3rd round of the German Tennis Championship 2011 was the 7th fixture between the World No.7 Gael Monfils of France and Radek Stepanek, the Czech world No.57. The match was played at the
largest court in Germany, the Rothenbaum Tennis Court in Hamburg.
The 24-year-old from Paris turned pro in 2004 and has been under coaching of Roger Rasheed since 2008. The huge 6’4” is a right handed super tennis human. Gael takes perfect advantage of his height as he covers the court in no
time. Rarely missing a shot, Monfils is very strong near the net and is an offensive baseliner.
Gael had his 7th match against Radek Stepanek on this Thursday 21st July 2011. Previously they have been head to head at the Tokyo Open, Brisbane International, Paris Open, Vienna Open, Monte Carlo Masters
and at Cincinnati Open. The French world No.7 has dominated 5 out of the 7 times the two have been head to head.
Radek, the former world No.8, has grown old now. At 32 years of age, the Czech has played more than 700 matches altogether. Regardless the extensive experience, the right hander has been constantly trying to prove himself against
the young Monfils but somehow fails most of the times.
The match kicked off with the Czech international serving for the opener and winning the first game 1-0. With a shocker to the world No.7, Stepanek won an instant and the first breakpoint of the match to make it 2-0 after game
2. Gael made his comeback with his strong right forehands and super sleek cut shots to take his first breakpoint in game 3, 1-2. Monfils grew stronger throughout as he won the next 3 games in no time, making the scores 4-2. Radek pulled off the next one to
cut the Frenchman’s lead to 4-3 but could not stop him anymore as he took two out of the next three games to end the set 6-4.
Stepanek once again served first and won the first game. The scores went up steadily until game 15 of the match. The Czech did could not check the Frenchman’s serve and returners and lost a breakpoint to give away the lead. Monfils
had done his job by then. He maintained his wins on his serve and eventually repeated the beating of the first set to win the second as well, 6-4, and took away the match 6-4, 6-4.
This was yet another win for the world No.7 against the Czech international and certainly an easy one. However, the total points did not show a big difference. 8 points over the Czech and a total of 68 allowed Monfils to win the
match.
The 24-year-old is the first to get into the Quarter-finals and hopes to lead on to the final round.
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