Gael Monfils defeats Gimeno-Traver: advances at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters
8th seeded French Gael Monfils eased past Spaniard Daniel Gimeno-Traver in straight sets to advance to the third round of the 2011 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Wednesday.
The Frenchman dumped Traver in one hour and 33 minutes at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin by 7-5, 6-2 score line to advance in this ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event. He has now extended his lead in the head to head series by 2-0 against the 25-year-old Spaniard.
Ranked 10th in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Monfils has won seven out of his last ten matches. He recently reached final at Kooyong ATP Exhibition and made a semi-final berth at San Jose before entering this tournament. He entered this tournament in full of confidence and become victorious in his opening match here at Monaco.
The 24-year-old displayed magnificent skills in the opening set and got the coveted break in the very first game by an exquisite backhand winner down the line. He later held his serve spectacularly but failed to save the breakpoint in the eighth game to tie the scores at 4-4. The level of game play rose after it and the Frenchman exchanged the break in the next two games. However, Monfils converted another breakpoint opportunity to his advantage in the eleventh game and held his serve in the follow-up game to seal the set with a 7-5 score line in 51 minutes.
Although he committed three double faults, Monfils clobbered 14 unforced errors to Traver’s 17. He capitalized on three out of seven breakpoints and registered a convincing 68 percent win on his higher firsts serve share.
Monfils carried his momentum into the second set and broke the Spaniard’s serve in the very first game after several deuces. Later he held his serves spectacularly and earned his double delight in the fifth game by breaking Traver’s serve in the fifth game to clinch the set with an assuring 6-2 score line.
He dodged all the errors this time and had a much higher first serve share of 74 percent as compared to Spaniard’s 44 percent. Monfils also earned a plausible 76 percent win on it and converted two out of seven breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to win easily.
He will next face Portuguese qualifier Frederico Gil and if he keeps his momentum, he can easily overpower the Portuguese and reach far in the tournament. The qualifier upset German Florian Mayer with a breadstick to reach this spot.
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