Gael Monfils steers into the 3rd round; beats Albert Ramos – German Tennis Championship 2011
Thursday continued the 2nd round matches of the German Tennis Championships 2011 at Hamburg. The largest tennis court, the Rothenbaum Tennis Court was the venue selected for the fixtures. Playing on clay court against
each other and for the first time, the Spaniard Albert-Ramos Vinolas came face to face against the mighty Frenchman Gael Monfils. As the players came in, fans gave them a round of applause to start off with the match.
Gael Monfils has been in his top ranking this season but hasn’t been quite lucky to win any of the last 3 titles he played for. The 24 year-old stands at 6’4” and plays right handed. Having started in 2004, Monfils has been under
the coaching of Roger Rasheed who has proven to be a perfectionist near the baseline and net. The Frenchman has been remarkable on clay. Playing a total of 172 matches over all on clay circuit, Monfils has won 114 making the current match his 115th.
On the other hand, Albert-Ramos Vinolas is a Barcelona born Spaniard playing since 2007. The young 23 year old came up quickly in the rankings as he was formerly the world No.78 this season. The left hander has been under the coaching
of Jose Maria Diaz-Perez since the beginning of his career. Winning 7 out of the last 10 matches, Vinolas has been quite impressive and a tough shot for the players but that was yet to see.
Starting off with the match, the Spaniard served first and opened up the score card. Monfils followed and levelled the scores at 1-1 after game 2. Vinolas then served again but did not quite keep up in the game and eventually gave
away a breakpoint to the Frenchman. Increasing his lead, Monfils eased the next game to lead by 2 games, 3-1. The Spanish bullfighter did win all the next games on his serve but that could not lead him to a set win. The set ended with score 6-4 with Monfils
leading the match 1-0.
The 2nd and the 3rd breakpoints of the match were in the 2nd set. Serving first once again, Vinolas opened up the scorecard and similarly the Frenchman followed to level the lead 1-1. Vinolas once
again gave away in the 3rd game of the 2nd set. Monfils leading once again had his socks pulled up for the win now.
Winning the next game the world No.7 led the set 3-1 now. Vinolas did cut the lead to 3-2 but could not really make any difference to the world’s 7th best player. Monfils won another breakpoint in game 17 making the
Spaniard foresee his loss. Scores changed from 5-2 to 6-2 with Monfils winning the final game, set and the match easily 6-4, 6-2.
Statistically, Monfils had a greater edge on breakpoints. He saved 100 percent of the breakpoints and won 3 out of 5. With a total of 41 service and 26 return points, Gael Monfils won the match totalling 67 points against 46 of
Albert Ramos Vinolas.
Heading towards the 3rd round, World No.7 and the No.1 seed in the event, Monfils will play Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic in a 3 setter to the quarter-finals.
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