Gael Monfils has ended David's Olympic dream today, defeating him 6-4, 6-4 in their third round match.
On a rather sparsely attended Centre Court, David dropped his very first service game but managed to break back, levelling the score at 2-2. However, when he served at 3-3, two untimely errors in a row (both with the forehand) meant another break for Monfils. To which David responded by smashing his racquet on the ground... But this time, he couldn't get the break back and Monfils took the first set 6-4.
The second set saw a couple of great rallies. David now came to the net more often, trying to keep points short. There were no breaks until 4-4. Then it was David's turn to serve. At 30-30, he went for a high-risk backhand, which landed wide and gave Monfils a break point. At that moment, David tried to play serve & volley, but Monfils saw it coming... Which earned him another break and the chance to serve out the match. And he did, though he started with 0-30, but then followed it up with a series of great serves, David just couldn't get his hands on...
Overall, David played a good match. His groundstrokes were there - but his serve was not. (See statistics below.) And as the match went on, he grew more and more frustrated because of it.
In the end, just a few poor points cost him the match.
Not that it will make this loss any easier for him...
Stats:
1st Serves: 44%
Aces: 0
Double Faults: 5
1st Serves Won 72%
2nd Serves Won 49%
Break Point Conversion: 1/4
Winners: 16 (5 forehand, 11 backhand)
Volley Winners: 7
UEs: 39
More photos:
1 comments:
At least David has had some good match practice going into the US Open. He seems to have been under too much pressure. It was tough being in the half with Djokovic and Nadal. It was too much to expect of himself that he would repeat that victory over the #3, #2, and then the #1 (still) ranking player. I'd rather just see him return to enjoying this sport.
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