By Chris Oddo | Friday, November 21, 2014
Gael Monfils took it to Roger Federer early and often on Friday, defeating the Swiss maestro in straight sets to bring the French Level heading into Saturday's doubles.
Photo Source: Getty
Roger Federer had two different types of pain to deal with on Friday in Lille, France during the second rubber of this weekend’s Davis Cup final: His back and an unstoppable Gael Monfils.
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On this day the double whammy proved to be far too much for Federer as Monfils coasted to a surprisingly one-sided 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 victory to level the Davis Tie at one apiece heading into Saturday’s all-important doubles rubber.
“It’s like unbelievable,” an elated Monfils said, after improving to 10-2 lifetime on the Davis Cup battlefield. “I cannot describe.”
Monfils brought the crowd—and Federer—to a boil in the waning moments of the first set, when he secured the double break lead on an overruled call at the baseline which Federer briefly argued to no avail.
Two points later, Federer complained directly at Monfils for stepping back off the service line while he was waiting to return, which drew hollers from the crowd and a stunned and offended glare from Monfils. If Federer’s outburst had a purpose, it failed. All it did was fire the raucous French crowd up further, and Monfils finished the set in 31 minutes as a Federer crosscourt backhand sailed way wide.
Things didn’t change much in the final two sets in terms of the scoreline, though Federer’s level did start to gradually improve. Monfils would break once in the second set and another two times in the third set to hand Federer one of his worst losses in a best-of-five match in his entire career.
“I think in the beginning it was just more of being not quite sure how everything was going to go,” said Federer, who drops to 37-8 lifetime in Davis Cup singles matches. “The problem was that was Gael was in full flight early and he was able to stretch the lead quickly.”
Monfils, who hammered 44 winners against only 18 winners (against 25 winners to 29 unforced errors for Federer), secured a fifth break of the Federer serve in the final game of the match to level the tie for France and send the enormous crowd at Stade Pierre Mauroy into a frenzy.
“Gael played maybe one of the best matches of his life,” said French captain Arnaud Clement. If not the best, Monfils’ calm, self-assured romp of the most decorated tennis player of all-time—bad back or no bad back—has to rank among the highest.
“I’m very happy for him, because he did a very, very good preparation,” added Clement. “He did it today, and he deserves it.”
“You have to give him credit and accept that,” said Severin Luthi, the Swiss Davis Cup captain, of Monfils.
Though disappointed, Luthi was energized by Federer’s performance in the latter stages of the match. “I think it’s very positive because he didn’t have any pain,” he said. “That was the most important for us, and I think he could do more and more during the match. I also though he was starting to play better and better and that’s also positive going into the weekend for our team.”
Saturday’s all-important doubles tie is slated to be between Julien Benneteau and Richard Gasquet of France and Michael Lammer and Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland. But many believe that Federer’s positive situation with the back could lead to a late substitution of Federer and Wawrinka. Captains have until one hour before play on Saturday to make changes to the lineup.
Though many are clamoring for the Swiss to go for broke and insert Federer and Wawrinka—who won the 2008 Olympic gold medal in doubles—into the lineup, the truth of the matter is that the pair have lost their last four Davis Cup doubles rubbers, dating back to a 2011 win against Portugal.
“I didn’t take a decision yet,” said Luthi. “I think we have all the options. We have to see what is best for the team.”
“It’s going to be so important, of course,” said Clement, stating the obvious.