2 things that stood out in Gael Monfils' 1R win over Alexander Bublik at the Citi Open
Gael Monfils of France beat fifth seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-4 in their first-round match at the Citi Open in Washington on Wednesday, August 2. The match lasted for around one and a half hours, as the 36-year-old Frenchman secured the victory without much trouble.
The 26-year-old Kazakh, meanwhile, was the favourite to win the match, but could not perform well enough to seriously threaten his much older opponent. Monfils was the better player on the day and thoroughly deserved his victory.
Monfils does not have too many years left at the top and therefore, must have cherished the win over a seeded player.
On that note, let us take a look at two things that stood out in the match:
#1. Alexander Bublik played drop shots quite frequently
Alexander Bublik opted to play drop shots quite frequently to drag the Frenchman into the net. However, Gael Monfils’ excellent movement allowed him to get to the ball on most of the occasions and hence, the tactic often backfired for the Kazakh.
Bublik struggled to contend with Monfils from the baseline, but the Frenchman had the more powerful groundstrokes to gain upper hand in most of the rallies. He raced to a 4-1 lead in the first set and then maintained the lead to win the first set quite easily.
#2. Gael Monfils made Alexander Bublik move from side to side in the 2nd set
Gael Monfils dictated terms from the baseline for the majority of the second set. He made Alexander Bublik move from side to side frequently, thereby not allowing the Kazakh to settle down and play his groundstrokes with ease.
Bublik tried to upset the Frenchman’s rhythm by hitting a few underarm serves, but it hardly served the purpose. Monfils managed to dispatch most of those serves with ease and thus retain the upper hand.
The Frenchman once again got an early break in the second set and secured a 5-3 lead. However, Bublik then managed to break back and reduce the deficit. Still, Monfils broke the Kazakh in the subsequent game itself to ease towards a victory.
Both players struggles to win points on their second serves in the match. Monfils won only 53% of the points on his second serve, while Bublik managed a still less 47%. The Frenchman seemed to enjoy himself during the match and will continue to pose a significant threat to his future opponents in the tournament as well.