Monte Carlo Masters 2019: Nadal, Zverev sail through as Nishikori crashes out
It was bright and sunny in Monte Carlo and all was set for an exciting day of tennis as there were some interesting tie-ups including the defending champion Rafael Nadal and another engaging contest between Alexander Zverev and the rising star Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
In spite of these matches, the day turned out to be pretty sour in the end as there were more one-sided matches as compared with the last two days and the match between Kei Nishikori and Pierre-Hugues Herbert was an exception.
Gilles Simon of France withdrew before his match against Fabio Fognini and as a result of this, there was only one Frenchman left in the draw and that was Pierre-Hugues Herbert. He faced last year's finalist Kei Nishikori for a place in the third round.
It was Nishikori who was in charge of the first few games as he displayed some good quality ground-strokes with variation in between. Herbert tried to stay in the set as much as he could by saving three break points in the seventh game of the first set.
As the set progressed, Nishikori started loosening up a bit and Herbert was quick enough to take the room offered by Nishikori as he broke Kei's serve and took the set 7-5.
Even the second set went neck-to-neck till the 10th game where Nishikori was serving to stay in the match as Herbert once again pushed Nishikori into a deuce and to settle things out, the crowd got involved and Herbert took the game, set and the match 6-4.
Herbert thus keeps the French hope intact and he will face Borna Coric for a place in the quarter-finals.
The second match of the day was the highly-anticipated encounter between the German 3rd seed Alexander Zverev and the young rising Canadian player Felix Auger-Aliassime. It was their first meeting on the tour and there were high expectations as both the players have an all-round game style and can adapt easily to changing conditions.
Felix was trying too hard on every shot he hit right from the first game of the match and this extra effort from his racquet didn't go well as he lost his serve in the first game itself. Since then, it was all Zverev who was dominant with a first serve percentage of 75 which was the best from any player in the tournament.
By the end of the first set, there were 14 unforced errors from Felix and only 3 from Zverev. This was just a testament to the defensive skills of Zverev and the lack of experience of Felix.
The second set was a bit competitive as Felix started getting into the groove and tried pushing Zverev with his trademark powerful cross-courts from both the sides. There were, once again a fair exchange of break points as it had become a norm in this year's Monte Carlo Masters.
Both the players made a fair amount of errors both on serve and especially on the forehand. But, it was Zverev who prevailed in the end by breaking in the 10th game of the second set and eventually taking the match 6-1, 6-4.
33 unforced errors flew from Felix's racquet in this match whereas there were only 18 errors from Zverev in the whole match. Thus, the much-hyped contest between the two ended as a one-sided affair in the end and kudos to the defense of Zverev and, in all rights, he deserved to be a winner in the end.
Another big-ticket match was the defending champion Rafael Nadal and his fellow countryman Roberto Bautista Agut. The latter is known for his longevity in every match he plays except for his matches against the Spanish Bull.
The top-spin forehand and the height it generates into the backhand of Roberto Bautista Agut was almost enough for Rafa to clinch victory and the same thing happened in today's match as well. Bautista Agut was nowhere in his comfort zone as Rafa was smashing winners especially from his forehand.
Bautista Agut had no answers and eventually succumbed to the defending champ without a fight with the score 1-6,1-6. The match barely took an hour and it would have been wonderful if there was a stiff challenge from Bautista Agut.
But, Agut can't complain as Rafa will almost be invincible when it comes to clay as he has a win percentage of 92 on this surface which is the highest by any player. Even one of the all-time greats of the sport and a fantastic player on clay, Bjorn Borg stands second with a win percentage of 84 on clay.
Other prominent results:
1) Stefanos Tsitsipas def. Mikhail Kukushkin (6-3,7-5)
2) Taylor Fritz def. Diego Schwartzman (6-4,6-2)
3) Grigor Dimitrov def. Jan Lennard Struff (7-6,6-4)
4) Dusan Lajovic def. David Goffin (6-3,6-4)
5) Dominic Thiem def. Martin Klizan (6-1,6-4)