Monfils advances in Stuttgart, Gulbis to face Haas

Gael Monfils gets past fellow Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets on Tuesday in Stuttgart. Monfils is joined in the second round by Ernests Gulbis, a three-set winner over Marcel Granollers.

Gael Monfils d. Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6(0), 6-4

Monfils, who skipped Wimbledon for personal reasons, returned with a straight-set victory over Mathieu during first-round action at the Mercedes Cup on Tuesday afternoon. The world No. 60 blasted 16 aces and saved all six of the break points he faced to advance in one and 40 minutes.

Mathieu went toe-to-toe with his countryman the entire way aside from the end of each set. The 31-year-old did not win a single point in the tiebreaker then dropped serve for the first time all day at 4-5 in the second. Mathieu wrapped up his effort with no aces and six double-faults while fighting off six of seven break points.

“It was really difficult because it was really fast,” Monfils said of the conditions. “I didn’t expect clay like this. This is very fast, very dry, slippery, a bit windy, so it wasn’t easy conditions today. I needed to adapt myself. It was tough.”

Ernests Gulbis d. Marcel Granollers 4-6, 6-1, 6-1

Gulbis got off to a slow start but eventually overwhelmed Granollers in one hour and 34 minutes on Tuesday. The Latvian got broken in the first game of the match, broke back immediately, then dropped serve again before his opponent closed things out at 5-4.

From there, however, it was all Gulbis. In fact, Granollers won a grand total of just two games in the second a third frames of play combined. The 41st-ranked Spaniard missed two break chances in the second and won only four points in three return games during the third. Gulbis’ sixth break of the day came at 5-1 and it sent him through to a showdown against familiar foe and top seed Tommy Haas.

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