Friendly fire as Monfils beats Wawrinka for title
ROTTERDAM: Gael Monfils defeated good friend Stan Wawrinka 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 on Sunday to win his eighth career title at the Rotterdam Open.
Monfils, the runner-up three years ago, held off Wawrinka’s second-set surge to ease through the decider.
“It was an unbelievable week, a pleasure,” said Monfils.
“Stan is a part of this win. We’ve been talking a lot and practising a lot. You’re my brother,” he told his Swiss opponent.
“This has been a good week for Stan and a good week for me. I hope we can have many more battles.”
Wawrinka, the 2015 champion in the Dutch port city who is continuing an 18-month comeback from double knee surgery, was playing in his first final since Roland Garros in June 2017.
“It was great for sure to be in the final,” Wawrinka said. “I’m pleased with the way I played in it and the way I arrived to the final.
“I played four good matches here, I kept my level up all week.”
Three-time major winner Wawrinka said he hopes to build on his run this week.
“I need to keep doing what I’ve been doing the last few months. I need to play events to gain confidence. Keeping going is the only way to get back my ranking,” said the world number 68.
It was the first championship match in 11 years at Rotterdam to feature two unseeded players.
Monfils, 32, showed no hard evidence of the left wrist injury which has bothered him all week and forced him onto a regime of pain-killers.
The world number 33 triumphed in one and three-quarter hours with four service breaks against three-time major winner Wawrinka as he claimed his first title since Doha last year.
NEW YORK: Reilly Opelka blasted 43 aces and won his first ATP Tour title with a 6-1, 6-7 (9-7), 7-6 (9-7) victory over Canadian Brayden Schnur at the New York Open on Sunday.
The 21-year-old American paved the way for the victory by successfully challenging what Schnur thought was a crucial ace at 7-7 in the final tiebreak.
Schnur’s shot was shown to be out by a millimetre or two, so instead of having championship point the Canadian had a second serve, which he netted.
Opelka then slammed his 43rd ace of the match for the victory. He had the same number of aces in beating top seed John Isner in their semi-final on Saturday.