Gael Monfils ousts Michael Russell in the second round – Open Sud de France 2012
World number 13, Gael Monfils of France, had no trouble in dumping the American veteran, Michael Russell in the second round of the Open Sud de France on Thursday. The third seed home favourite displayed his brilliant hard-court tennis skills to oust the 110-ranked Russell comprehensively in straight sets with the identical scores of 6-3, 6-3, to march into the quarter-final draw of the tournament.
It was the third consecutive time that Monfils had beaten Russell in a singles encounter. Their last meeting was held at the Miami Masters in 2009, with the American posing some decent resistance before losing the three-setter at 2-6, 7-6(5), 3-6. It was Monfils’ seventh victory of the current ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) season, pushing him one step closer to bag his fifth championship title.
Monfils received a bye to the second round of the tournament and blew away the 33-year-old American to clinch a quarter-final spot at the ATP World Tour 250-level tournament. A clear age difference was evident from the game play of the two contestants. Russell was too sloppy to meet the agility of 25-year-old Monfils, whose lightning footwork and reach to play the strokes was far superior to the veteran.
The third seed Monfils banged in 17 thudding aces to win some un-fought points in the contest and amazingly secured 32 out of 38 first serve points to drive his opponent out of the competition with ease. He crafted a total of 10 break opportunities and only three conversions were sufficient to take the better of Russell, who utterly failed to go even close to a serve break in the entire contest.
Monfils nailed his opponent with two consecutive break point conversions in the opening set to rocket away to 6-3 with limited effort. His winning momentum in the following set earned him another serve break in the fourth game and the Frenchman held his lead until the conclusion of the match at 6-3.
Monfils will square off against the eighth seed Finn opponent, Jarkko Nieminen, in the round of eight to battle for a spot in the semis. Nieminen registered a straight sets victory over the local wildcard entrant, Paul-Henri Mathieu, with the final scores of 7-6(4), 6-1, in the second round of the draw. The eighth seed Finn will compete against Monfils on Friday night, with the winner of the contest making it through to the final-four of the tournament.
Tags: