Gael Monfils slashes away Jarkko Nieminen in quarterfinal – PTT Thailand Open 2011
Second seed, Gael Monfils of France overcame late resistance against the Finn Jarkko Nieminen to register a straight set victory at the PTT Thailand Open 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series event taking place at the Impact Arena
from September 24th to October 2nd in Bangkok, Thailand. He registered a 7-5, 7-6(4) victory over the 30-year-old Finn to reach the last four on Friday.
The Paris native, Monfils put up a brilliant display of tennis to earn a straight set victory in their first meeting against the Finn. After one hour and thirty-six minutes match, the Frenchman bagged the match to not only inch
towards the $608,500 prize money but also took lead in the head-to-head series by 1-0 against Nieminen.
Currently enjoying a top ten spot in the South African Airways ATP World Tour rankings, Monfils made a disastrous start on the Thai hard courts. He gifted away his opening serve and eventually went 3-0 down. However, Monfils broke
back in the fifth game and took lead for the first time in the seventh game to have an edge. Despite squaring the scores in the tenth game by 5-5, he broke Nieminen’s serve again in the proceeding game and then sealed the opener with a 7-5 win after keeping
his serve in the follow-up game.
The Frenchman failed to save both breakpoints faced but capitalised on three out of four breakpoint opportunities to his advantage. He spilled more errors and double faults but managed to pull out victory in the opening set by
clobbering a higher first serve share and by earning a magnificent 68 percent win on it.
25-year-old Kept momentum rolling into the final set and held his opening serve in the second game to level the scores at 1-1. Afterwards, the Frenchman maintained his composure to pluck in remaining serves without facing any breakpoint.
Mustering the set further, he founded three breakpoint chances but failed to convert any to his advantage and eventually took the set to a tie-breaker. Monfils dominated throughout the tie-breaker and subsequently won the set with a 7-6(4) score line.
“I think I played better. I’m a bit sore after all the matches, but it’s good to be back on tour,” said the blissful Monfils – playing his first tournament since an early exit from the US Open. “Jarkko played very strong and it
was tough to move him and impose my game.”
The seed will next face American Donald Young who crushed Japanese qualifier Go Soeda with a breadstick to reach this spot.
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