Gael Monfils

Nine times former Davis Cup champions France don’t have the best team on paper but they played exceptionally well and marched into the finals to face first timers Serbia. The Serbian team looks very impressive with Novak Djokovic and Janko Tipsarevic leading their national team. The pressure highly builds over France as they are up against a better ranked team and the fact that the Final is being played in Belgrade, Serbia adds to Serbia’s advantage. Although France are multiple time champions Serbia will definitely went into the finals as favourites.

Gael Monfils was up against the very talented Janko Tipsarevic who was backed by his home crowd with 200 decibels of cheers. Young Monfils was bound to get overwhelmed by the conditions and lose the match even before it started. But, Monfils had other ideas for the first rubber; he stuck to his natural energetic play and won the first set 6-1 much to the surprise of everyone.

Tipsarevic is known to be a slow started and his previous records show that he is very good in the later sets of a match. With the numbers and the home crowd backing him, Tipsarevic answered aggressively and battled hard to stretch the second set into a tie-break. The noisy Belgrade Tennis stadium became noisier and any player would have lost nerves in such a situation, but, not Monfils who came back stronger with a flurry of backhands that won him the set 7-4 in the tie break.

Tipsarevic was the one now in immense pressure. He had to go all guns blazing in the third set and was forced to play attacking tennis which Monfils counters really well with his flexible body and breath-taking athleticism. Similar to the previous two sets Monfils didn’t get overwhelmed and held his nerve; on the other hand Tipsarevic played cricket with his racquet smashing the ball into the stands. Virender Sehwag finally has a competitor.

The Serbs 38 unforced errors proved too much and he lost the first rubber with a humiliating score of 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0. Nothing should be taken away from Monfils who showed nerves of steel under enormous pressure that became the reason for his victory.

Tags: Belgrade, Davis Cup, France, Gael Monfils, Janko Tipsarevic, Novak Djokovic, Serbia, Sports, Tennis