Paul-Henri Mathieu stuns Donald Young to reach round two – Monte Carlo Rolex Masters 2012
French tennis professional, Paul-Henri Mathieu, squashed the 50th ranked American, Donald Young, in the opening round clash of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters on Monday. It was an easy straight sets triumph for the local
who dispatched the visitor 6-0, 6-1 to start off the clay court campaign.
Both players were contesting their first head-to-head encounter. It was thought that Young would ease his way into the next round of the tournament having been drawn against the 352nd ranked French player. However, the
match totally went the other way round and the local stunned the visitor to delight his home crowd and more importantly show his supreme colours at the age of 30.
The 22-year-old American started the match in dismal fashion; lost the opening serve game and went down 2-0 at the beginning. He further disappointed his fans with a poor second serve game; failed to win a single point and gifted
a lead of 3-0 to his opponent.
Mathieu faced a slight difficulty in holding on to his serve; saved a couple of points and made sure that the visitor was given no opportunity at all to bounce back into the match. Young once again faulted on his serve, dropped
two points on the trot courtesy to unforced errors and couldn’t save a breakpoint that forced him to a trail of 5-0.
He was in search to save a bagel but could only win a single point in the last game before the former world number 12 raced away into the second set with a resounding lead. It was a stunning performance from the French professional
who was ruling the show at his home soil.
The second set started in the same fashion; lost the opening serve game and wasted two opportunities to break serve in the following game. Young was in the hunt to win a game and his efforts were rewarded in the third game. Mathieu
didn’t allow him to take away the control and broke serve immediately in the fifth game to take a resounding lead of 4-1.
Last two games went in the favour of the French as well and he cruised into the next round to play against the winner of the match between Kei Nishikori and Albert Ramos.
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