Gael Monfils is one win away from pocketing two titles in as many weeks in addition to a successful title defense at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.
To accomplish those feats, he will have to emerge victorious from what on paper looks like one of the most entertaining matchups in tennis. It will be Monfils vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime on Sunday afternoon.
The champion in Montpellier last weekend, Monfils has maintained his fine form with Rotterdam victories over Joao Sousa, Gilles Simon, Dan Evans, and Filip Krajinovic. The ninth-ranked Frenchman, who defeated Stan Wawrinka in last year’s final, has not dropped a single set.
Auger-Aliassime’s appearance in the title match is more surprising. The 19-year-old Canadian went 1-3 at the ATP Cup, was upset by Ernests Gulbis in round one of the Australian Open, and lost to Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the Montpellier second round. But he also reached the quarterfinals in Adelaide (lost to Andrey Rublev in a tight three-setter), which may have saved his confidence. Finally recapturing his 2019 level, Auger-Aliassime has advanced this week by beating Jan-Lennard Struff, Grigor Dimitrov, Aljaz Bedene, and Pablo Carreno Busta.
“He is a great guy; humble guy,” Monfils said of Auger-Aliassime. “He is a very talented guy. Definitely I expect a tough match, but a cool match because I think we might see him for a long time in this part of a tournament on this stage.”
Auger-Aliassime has already been to three ATP Finals (including at the 500-point level 12 months ago in Rio de Janeiro) but is still searching for his first title. Although Monfils knows a thing or two about losing finals (9-21 lifetime), he is 3-1 in his last four. There is no longer any mental block for the 33-year-old in such situations–certainly not after cruising past Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 6-3 last Sunday in Montpellier.
Monfils has played a lot of tennis these past two weeks, but if he was going to run out of gas in Rotterdam it already would have happened. The No. 3 seed has conserved energy by winning all of his sets and both adrenaline and confidence should be pumping for one more match.
This will likely be more of a roller-coaster ride than Monfils’ first four matches, but his experience and obvious comfort level on the indoor hard courts of Rotterdam will likely see him through to another winner’s trophy.
Pick: Monfils in 3
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WYG?
Monfils in 3.
Monfils’ semi today was pretty entertaining already. Krajinovic was playing well too. However, I’m looking forward to this one. FAA will have to serve and defend exceptionally well to get past Monfils.
Monfils defends exceptionally well ,so FAA will have to have his gameplan sopt on
Monfils in an entertaining 2!