Monfils gets break-through ATP Tour title

Frenchman Gael Monfils has claimed his first ATP Tour title since February 2014 after beating veteran Ivo Karlovic in the Citi Open final in Washington.

The title is the fourth ATP crown for the 29-year-old Italian.

Monfils, who will jump from 17th to 14th in the world rankings, squandered three break points in the 12th game and dropped the first set on a Karlovic overhead smash.

It was a similar story in the second set, with no breaks or even break point chances until Monfils gave up his serve to fall 5-4 behind. Flamboyant Monfils denied Karlovic on a match point in the second-set tiebreaker as well, broke him again in the third game of the final set and held from there to win in two hours and 13 minutes. Monfils dominated the service game, launching 6 aces to 3 against Zverev. “We won a couple more big points than they did”.

The wait is over for Gael Monfils. With that, an energized Monfils, along with the crowd, celebrated taking the match into a decider.

But Monfils finally had figured how to read Karlovic’s serve.

Monfils often changed his return position throughout the match. Zverev on the other hand, was no given any chances for break point by the determined Monfils. Ivo Karlovic, seeded 13th, will face off against the second seed, Gael Monfils of France.

Soon enough, Monfils ended Karlovic’s eight-match winning streak, which included a title last week on grass at Newport, Rhode Island.

“To be honest, today was pure luck”, Monfils said.

Monfils, who is 29, tried a bit of everything. But the Frenchman cracked another big serve for 6-all. He’s very aggressive in the return. “It’s a good step but hopefully I will have bigger”.

Croatian Ivo Karlovic hits a forehand during Sunday’s Citi Open final at Rock Creek Park Tennis Center. Karlovic has now won two of the last three matches against the top twenty-five ranked American. Karlovic takes the eighth game 40-15 to reach set point. But the match turned the way of Monfils towards the end of the second set when he broke his opponent’s serve for the first time and then survived a tense tie-break.

But Williams, seeking her 50th career title, won six of the next seven games to knot the match at a set apiece. The Croatian added 6 aces to 4 to pull ahead of Johnson in terms of the service category.

The French second seed prevented the 37-year-old Karlovic from becoming the oldest man since 1973 to win ATP singles tournaments in consecutive weeks. “Always I get unbelievable support here”. Karlovic’s tactic of playing Steve Johnson near the net proved to be very effective in neutralizing the elite-level American.

“I was going to win, and then I lost my serve”.

This time, though, the second seed broke back, Karlovic following up his booming serve by coming to the net, only to send a volley long, Monfils drawing level at 5-5.

In Gstaad, Swizterland, Spain’s Feliciano Lopez knocked off Robin Haase 6-4, 7-5 to win the J. Safara Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad title, 10 years after he finished up runner-up to Richard Gasquet in the final. Fognini stayed untouched on serve in the opening set, not letting deuce on his serve, and he converted his 4th break point in game 10 to take the opener 6-4.