Gael Monfils slays Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round – Western & Southern Open 2011
World number eight, Gael Monfils of France, won his encounter against the 47th ranked German, Philipp Kohlschreiber, in the third round of Western and Southern Financial Group Masters, on Thursday afternoon.
6th seeded Monfils registered his straight sets victory at 6-2, 6-2, on the outdoor hard courts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, near Cincinnati, United States, to make it to the quarter-final draws. Kohlschreiber hung in the game for merely 65 minutes of play before surrendering the matchup to the belligerent eighth ranked French in the second set.
It was 29th victory for Monfils in the running year to grand him a berth in the quarter-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters Series event. These both men have already played each other on two occurrences earlier this year, with one win a piece for them. He Last time they encountered each other was at the Round Robin stage of the Davis Cup play offs, where Monfils outplayed Kohlschreiber in straight sets 7-6(3), 7-6(5), 6-4, to bring victory to his side. The Frenchman now runs a two-match winning streak against the Kohlschreiber and leads the all-time head-to-head record against him by 5-1.
The Thursday’s contest was a magnificent display of commanding dominance from Monfils. The French fired six aces with his 68 per cent precise serve and brilliantly pocketed 27 out of 32 first serve points in the contest to come out as the winner. The French serve remained unbroken in the entire matchup, with Kohlschreiber utterly failing to get even closer to a break opportunity in the game.
The French was off to a sloppy start in the opener but nailed his first serve break of the day in the fifth game to lead 3-2. Another timely break point conversion from Monfils proved decisive in the first set, with the 6th seeded French bagging the opener at 6-2.
Monfils continued his demolition job in the second set as well, breaking in the Kohlschreiber in the opening game and then again in the seventh game to reach 5-2. The French faced no difficulty in serving out of the second set at 6-2, advancing to the quarter-finals of Cincinnati Masters.
The ultimate challenge for Monfils awaits in the quarter-finals, when he will go one-on-one with the in-form world number one, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, for a berth in the semis. Djokovic cleared the third round by defeating Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.
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