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Vinay Nayudu
Doha
In what was a case of being fourth time lucky, three-time runner-up Frenchman Gael Monfils outclassed Russian youngster Andrey Rublev in a matter of just 60 minutes in the Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2018 final to finally lay his hands on the prestigious Falcon trophy at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex on Saturday.
A wild card entrant, the former world No.6 Monfils, who last triumphed at the Citi Open in Washington in 2016, demolished the thus far rising challenger and 39-ranked Rublev to cruise to a 6-2, 6-3 triumph and break the Doha jinx.
"I'm very happy. I like this tournament so much. I always come back. And I was very close and finally got it. So I'm just very happy and very proud," said the 31-year-old Monfils of his victory.
The injury-prone Monfils may have benefited by a lay off on Friday as he reached the final after his semi-final opponent -- top seed Dominic Thiem -- withdrew due to fever while Rublev looked somewhat tired following his three-set battle against Agentinian Guido Pella.
That, however, cannot be an excuse in professional tennis and Rublev was given some lessons that there is no easy road to success by Monfils.
The Frenchman himself had been on the receiving end in three finals in 2006, 2012 and 2014 where he lost to Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and Rafael Nadal respectively.
This time though, Monfils was in no mood to let the opportunity go. Beginning with booming serves, 200kmph and more, he called the shots from the word go to rattle Rublev.
A break in the 4th game of the opening set was enough for Monfils to force the young Russian into committing errors.
Up 4-1 and then 5-2, Monfils kept up the pressure in the 8th game too and soon fetched another break to wrap up the first set in just 23 minutes.
Rublev, who has shown great talent in the last one year, needed composure to pull things back in the second set but on the contrary he hit wide down the line and on the baseline to lose what could have been valuable winners.
Monfils got the break in the 4th game but the next game saw an intriguing battle on Rublev's serve between the two. After being locked at deuce, they traded advantage quite a few times not willing to let it go.
It was here that Monfils kept up the pressure shooting winners at 148kmph much to Rublev's bewilderment. The Russian tried to bring in some variation and had a break point but Monfils wriggled out and succeeded in holding his serve and make it 4-1. Monfils moved to 5-2 before Rublev held the next to make it 5-3 but soon the Frenchman ensured that it was all over, clinching the set at 6-3.
While Monfils hit 29 overall winners, Rublev had 21 unforced errors.
Later, Rublev revealed that fatigue did get the better of him.
"I think I was completely tired today. I mean, you can see that even my shots did not have the same energy like previous matches. I was doing a lot of mistakes, a lot of wrong shots. You can see even I was really slow today on the court.
"Every time he (Monfils) moved me to one side and most of the time it was almost over, or if I could catch one point then he was always killing me with the second."You can see that today I was really had no energy, no power in the legs and the speed of the ball was not even close like it was previous matches. I mean, previous matches was much faster and all this stuff and really tough for me," stressed Rublev.
Monfils, who himself played his first final here in 2006 as a 19-year-old, credited the Russian for his fine show.
See also page 27 f1'eef0
