Gael Monfils of France used to be a top 10 player and was a 2008 semifinalist in the French Open. Since then he has been down with injuries and missed last year’s French Open because of his knee. Today, Monfils provided the first upset of the tournament when he defeated the 5th seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.
The match went five sets with the scores 7-6 (8), 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-5 and lasted four hours and three minutes.
Monfils had 26 aces and was broken once. The first set was an intense battle and lasted 60 minutes and he won the second set in only 34 minutes. But Berdych would not go away and won the third set and took the fourth in only 49 minutes.
It was a toss-up going into the fifth set, but history was on Monfils’s side as he won 7-5 to win the match. The home crowd helped, but Berdych does not have a good record in the first round in the French Open. This was Berdych’s fifth time in 10 tries he lost in the first round. He is ranked #6 in the world.
Monfils faces Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis in the third round.
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