Gasquet/ Ljubicic oust Almagro/ Raonic at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Doubles
An amazing game of doubles tennis was seen at Monte Carlo, Monaco as the team of Richard Gasquet of France and Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia wiped out the pair of Nicolas Almagro of Spain and Milos Raonic of Canada in the opening round of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on Monday. The winning duo faced no real challenge in dispensing out their opponents 6-3, 6-2, from the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) 1000 Masters event.
It appeared quite a one-sided affair with Gasquet and Ljubicic dominating the contest most of the time. They developed brilliant chemistry amongst them to overpower Almagro and Raonic in their straight sets victory. Gasquet and Ljubicic were terrific with their baseline defence and very few winners passed through them. An overall magnificent performance sends the winning pair to the second round of the Masters tournament.
Gasquet and Ljubicic were brilliant with their first serve, delivering 72 per cent of it on target and winning 34 of 54 total serve points in the game. They were broken just once, that was in the opening set and belted a total of four break points in the game to come out as the winners.
Almagro and Raonic clearly lacked the required coordination among them, an inability well exploited by their superior opponents. Gasquet and Ljubicic fired plenty of cross-court winners in the wide open cracks between their competitors and kept them pushing to commit silly mistakes. Almagro and Raonic had their opportunities in the game but they frittered away most of them to remain on the losing end. Five break chances came their way but Almagro and Raonic converted just one out of them to their advantage.
An interesting opening set was witnessed, with Almagro and Raonic hanging in for a while. They secured 61 per cent first serve points, slightly more than Gasquet and Ljubicic, but conceded too much unforced errors to assist their opponents come on top. Gasquet and Ljubicic dropped their serve in the fourth game but stung an immediate serve break to nullify their rivals’ advantage. They played good error-free tennis to reach the set point and a fiery ace from Gasquet’s racquet sealed the first serve at 6-3.
Gasquet and Ljubicic carried their momentum in the next set, breaking early in the third game to lead 2-1. Almagro and Raonic dropped their game in the second set and eventually submitted the match at 2-6. Gasquet and Ljubicic will now be taking on the second seed duo of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor in the second round of the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters.
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