Gael Monfils wins his 5th career title in Montpellier!
The Frenchman was seed no.5 and he was definitely considered as one of the favourite for the title. Gael played a rather “clean” match to break Richard Gasquet twice (once per set) without conceding a single break point.
Even if Monfils’ first service-percentage-in wasn’t great (56%) he has managed to drop only 2 points on his first serve (26 on 28). Finally Gael won 68 points vs. Richard’s 55. See Match Stats
Monfils: I love the atmosphere in Montpellier
Gael was elated by his success to comment “This is unbelievable for me. had some back problems at the beginning of the week and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to play, so to now be with the trophy is pretty crazy. I have been elevating my game match after match and I am extremely proud in the way I played today. I really enjoy playing here in Montpellier. I love the atmosphere there is in this arena.”
Gasquet: Happy, but also extremely disappointed
Richard was just one step away from defending his title to comment “It was great to be in final here once again. I am extremely disappointed to have lost in the final, but that’s tennis. I need to congratulate Gael because he’s played unbelievable all week. I wasn’t able to read his serve, he was serving bullets all match. My only way out was to try to push him to a tie-break and wait for him to start making mistakes. But it didn’t happen.”
Gael Monfils will fly to Rotterdam where he is going to play a great first round against the seed no.1 Juan Martin Del Potro. Ready for another surprise?