Former world No. 6 Gael Monfils on Tuesday made a fine start to his Sofia Open title bid by beating Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-4 in the first round on Armeets Arena Centre Court.
The Frenchman, who has slipped to 33 in the rankings after a series of injuries, offered fans plenty of jaw-dropping moments with his trademark acrobatics and baseline winners.
The charismatic 32-year-old, watched by Ukrainian girlfriend Elina Svitolina — seventh in the women’s rankings — eased through the first set after breaking Troicki in the fourth game.
Troicki, who reached the final in 2016, put up more of a fight in the second, but Monfils clinched the set with a superb service game to take his perfect record against the Serbian to 5–0.
Seventh seed Monfils served nine aces to wild-card Troicki’s eight, although the Frenchman also served eight double faults during a match which was over in just under an hour.
“I think my rate of service was not very good,” Monfils said. “I need to serve better if I want to stay in the tournament.”
Next up for Monfils is the winner of the first-round clash between Serbian Laslo Djere and Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin.
Big-serving Daniel Brands stunned Georgian fifth seed Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6 (9/7), 7-5, while fellow German qualifier Yannick Maden beat Adrian Mannarino of France 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
In the first round of the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Cheng-peng and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia defeated Marius Copil of Romania and Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 in 61 minutes to set up a quarter-final against Denys Molchanov of Ukraine and Igor Zelenay of Slovakia, who stunned top seeds Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Horia Tecau of Romania 6-4, 7-6 (9/7).
Additional reporting by staff writer
OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
AP, MONTPELLIER, France
Former champion Tomas Berdych on Tuesday made a winning return to the Open Sud de France with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory over German qualifier Matthias Bachinger.
Berdych, who won the hard-court title in 2012, saved seven of the 11 break points he faced to win in 2 hours, 12 minutes.
The Czech player next faces eighth seed Benoit Paire, who defeated Evgeny Donskoy of Russia 7-5, 6-3.
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