Gael Monfils talks win over Taro Daniel, next match
French tennis star Gael Monfils succeeded in his mission of finishing his French Open first round match against Japanese Taro Daniel on Tuesday as he won 6-0 6-4 6-1 in an hour and 41 minutes of play.
The 14th-seeded Frenchman had to win the match quickly in order to avoid continuing his Roland Garros opener on Wednesday as the match started just short of 20:00 pm local time.
"I really wanted to finish today. I didn't want to play a set tomorrow," Monfils said, per the ATP website. "I'm happy I managed to play well, and I'm very happy about that."
After being bageled in the first set, world No. 103 Daniel started the second set with a break but the Frenchman overturned the things to take a two-set lead.
"I paid a price at the beginning of the second set because I was too fast from the back of the court, and I could have waited a bit to slow down, ease the pressure. And then luckily I was able to win this very long game at 5-4 and go two sets to love," Monfils said.
"It's not easy. But two sets to love, I was quite happy to win this game for one good reason. I was serving afterwards, and I was going to put a lot of pressure, serve very hard, to show that I want to go faster."
Monfils plays next against fellow compatriot Adrian Mannarino, who beat Stefano Travaglia in the first round.
I"never easy to play a French guy, especially Adrian. He has a game which is particularly — he's left-handed, he plays very flat and low balls in the backhand. And over the past two years, he's been playing better on clay. He's feeling better. He's a good warrior," Monfils said of Mannarino.
"It's always difficult matches in Roland Garros to play against French players because the audience is shared. It's not easy."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2MgCQH9
No comments