Victor Hanescu struggles past Gael Monfils into 2nd round – Mercedes Cup 2011
The French star Gael Monfils has been in superb form in this season. Winning 19 out of 26 matches he played this season, the World No.7 is at his highest rank at the moment. Playing his first match of the 2011 Mercedes Cup, Monfils
prepared to give a glimpse of perfectionism against the Romanian international Victor Hanescu in the first round of the tour. The match was played at TC Weissenhof Court, Stuttgart.
The two players have played each other four times previously. Winning 3 out of the 4, Monfils had a strong statistical advantage over the 29-year-old Romanian. The French pro has strong right hands and covers the court very quickly
due to his huge structure. Considering his outstanding form, Monfils should not have had much of a problem beating the Romanian international. However, the Fates had a different idea.
The match started off with Hanescu serving first and opening the score card 1-0. Monfils followed as he levelled the score. The Romanian did manage to win the next game but that the last he could win for the first set. Monfils
drilled the Romanian world No.64 five games in a row to take away the set 6-2.
Hanescu served for the opener of the second set and eventually lost his way as the French sensation won a breakpoint of the first game. Losing the game on his serve, Monfils had yet to stand up strong once again. The Romanian
then served with scores 1-1 for game 11 and won to extend his lead to 2-1 igniting the temper of the mighty Monfils. The Frenchman finally unleashed his fury winning the next 3 games including a breakpoint altering the score to 4-2.
Trying to gain on to Monfils, the Romanian gave his best and bagged a set but Monfils was just too strong for Hanescu to handle. The scores went to 5-4 as the 29 year old Romanian stood up his ground to level the scores in the
next game to 5-5. Eventually the game went to a tiebreaker. The Romanian made a striking come back through his marginal win 7-6(7) over the Frenchman levelling the set score to 1-1.
The odds curved their directions as the Romanian world No.64 dominated in the third set. Monfils, winner the opener for the set was 2 sets down after losing a breakpoint to the Romanian making the score 3-1 after game 25. Victor
Hanescu played mouth openers and stunned the crowed as he played every shot. Outgunned by the struggling Hanescu, Monfils pulled up the decider set score from 3-1 to 4-5. Eventually disaster struck for the French. Victor Hanescu clinched away the final set
and the match 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-4 to make it to the next round.
The devastation put upon the French by Hanescu was a magical display of sportsmanship. Not losing hope was the key to the Romanians victory while the overconfident Frenchman had nothing but to clean himself up on his way back home.
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