Gael Monfils captured the ninth ATP title of his career on Sunday, beating Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 6-3 in the Open Sud de France final.
Monfils was the best player all week long, which is no surprise given his history in Montpellier. The Frenchman is now 19-4 lifetime at the tournament with three titles in addition to one runner-up performance.
“It has been a great week,” said Monfils, who saved all four of the break points he faced against Pospisil. “I am very pleased about my performance today. I think I played very solid again and I was very happy with the way I handled the key moments.”
In terms of both quantity and quality, nobody handled pressure-packed moments this week better than Jiri Vesely. The Czech survived consecutive third-set tiebreakers in the quarterfinals and semis at the Tata Open, saving a total of six match points at the expense of Ilya Ivashka and Ricardas Berankis. He won another thriller on Sunday, outlasting Egor Gerasimov 7-6(2), 5-7, 6-3.
“I have to be realistic; I had a lot of luck in the week, saving six match points [in] two matches in a row,” Vesely admitted. “I think that happens once in a lifetime, maybe, you never know…. Two matches in a row, especially in the quarterfinals and semifinals, is really big.”
It was career title No. 2 for Vesely, while Cristian Garin lifted his third winners’ trophy by beating Diego Schwartzman at the Cordoba Open. Garin came back from a set down in a third consecutive match with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory.
[crowdsignal poll=10503267]
[crowdsignal poll=10503338]
[crowdsignal poll=10503332]
congrats