France’s Gael Monfils won his third career title on Sunday, beating Croatian veteran Ivan Ljubicic 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 in the final of the inaugural Montpellier ATP tournament.
It was third time lucky for the world No. 15, who had to pull out of the Stuttgart final earlier this year and was beaten in Tokyo.
“I am so happy about this title, and it’s even more special because it’s in France and in front of my crowd,” the 24-year-old Monfils said.
“Since the US Open I’ve been returning serve better and better. I feel I have been working on many things on and off the court and the results are now showing,” he said.
“It’s a wonderful experience for me here, but we’re all thinking about the Davis Cup, so I’m hoping to see you all in Belgrade,” added Monfils, in reference to France’s Davis Cup final against Serbia from Dec. 3 to Dec. 5.
The Parisian adds to his previous titles in Sopot (2005) and Metz (2009).
Monfils has often been accused of lacking concentration at key moments of his career but he showed true grit and determination on his way to the final in an all-French semi-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Saturday.
Ljubicic said after his semi-final win on Saturday that he still felt fresh, mainly because he needed only two sets to dispose of Spain’s Albert Montanes 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
The Croat, however, looked anything but sprightly as an inspired Monfils used a combination of aggression and precision to race to a commanding first set win.
Ljubicic lifted his game to pull level in a closer second set, however that gave the 31-year-old only brief hope before he was totally outclassed in a decider in which his normally formidable serve failed to show.
World No. 17 Ljubicic had been bidding to win his second title of the year, having beaten Andy Roddick to claim the Indian Wells trophy in March.
In the past four weeks, he has reached three ATP semi-finals. Monfils becomes the fourth French player to win an ATP title this year, joining Michael Llodra, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier