Gael Monfils is in good shape one week before the Australian Open: The Frenchman won his first title in a year and a half at the Hartplatzturnier in Doha.
Monfil’s darling crowd favourite beat the Russian talent Andrej Rublev 6-2,6-3 in the final of the Qatar Open. After just over an hour, the wildcard holder from Paris transformed his first match point with a service winner and celebrated his first tournament coup since July 2016, when he had triumphed in Washington.
Monfils, also because of a persistent knee injury only the number 46 in the ranking, also polished up his rather weak final balance a little bit with it. In the past seven years, the often so spectacularly appearing “Lamonf” had lost eleven out of 13 finals and also this week on the fringes of the event in the Khalifa Tennis Complex had admitted “mental problems”.
“This success means a lot to me. It was a great week for me, I’m proud,”said Monfils, who had previously lost three Doha finals:”Finally I could win here, it’s a wonderful place:” The 31-year-old won $218,180 for his seventh individual title on the ATP tour and will climb to 39th place in the world rankings.
Monfils, who had eliminated Peter Gojowczyk (Munich) in the quarter-finals, made just ten easy mistakes against Rublev. The preliminary decision was made when 20-year-old Rublev gave his opponent a 3-1 lead in the second set with three forehand mistakes in a row. The Russians, one of the most promising talents of the next-generation guards, were faced with the strains of the semi-finals. Rublev had needed 2:25 hours against Guido Pella (Argentina) on Friday, before the 6:2,4:6,7:6 (7:2) was determined. Monfils, however, had benefited from the illness-related cancellation of top seed Dominic Thiem. The Austrian was not able to play his preliminary round game because of fever.