Gael Monfils prevails over Viktor Troicki to reach the quarter-finals – Thailand Open 2012
World number 45, France’s Gael Monfils, upset the sixth seeded player from Serbia, Viktor Troicki, in twin sets 7-5, 7-5 in the second round of the Thailand Open in Bangkok on Thursday.
Monfils did not make a good start, as he lost his serve in the first and fifth game to go down 1-4. Though, the former French number one pulled breaks back in the sixth and eighth to equalise the score at 4-4. Monfils struck once
more in the 12th to capture it 7-5.
The 6ft 4in tall banged in a couple of aces and did not make any double fault, keeping his first serve percentage at 72 and converting 20 of the 38 of them into points. The right-hander gave a below average performance on the second
deliveries and first returns, as he lost seven of the 15 and 15 of the 24 points on them respectively.
In the second set, Monfils bagged a breakthrough in the fourth game to move ahead 3-1 but Troicki hit back immediately to square off the score at 3-3. The subsequent five went with serve, taking the proceedings to 6-5 in favour
of Monfils. Serving to stay in the match at that moment, Troicki could not succeed and went down 5-7.
Monfils hit only one ace and committed a couple of double faults this time. The French contender gave his best performance on the first deliveries and second returns, securing 18 of the 22 and 11 of the 13 points on them respectively.
Monfils required one hour and 52 minutes to throw his higher ranked rival out of the tournament.
Commenting on the proceedings and his tactics during the post match press conference, the French player stated, “He was playing better early on and I was giving him mistakes. I tried a lot of things. Finally I began slicing more
and hitting harder. It turned into a physical fight. I was able to run him all over the court. I'm gaining confidence from another quality win here. It was my second tough match here.”
Monfils is drawn to face his 19th ranked compatriot, Gilles Simon, in the quarter-finals.
Simon is also having some shoulder injury concerns but Monfils said about that, “How many events has he missed? Four months out with a knee injury is much worse. I'd much rather be him than me going into our match. I'm not saying
he has nothing (wrong), but he's still been playing all along.”
These two have met three times before, with the head to head series being 2-1 in favour of Simon.
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