Monfils makes winning comeback with Qatar title
Given a wildcard following his return from a four-month injury-layoff, Frenchman Gael Monfils made full use of the opportunity by annexing the Qatar Open tennis title with a comprehensive 6-2, 6-3 win over Andrey Rublev of Russia.
Monfils' win on Saturday night was his seventh career title and it was his first title in Doha after losing three previous finals.
Monfils, ranked 46 in the world, got an early break for 3-1 when Rublev made a string of unforced errors -especially off his forehand.
Monfils broke again to wrap up the first set 6-2 to step closer to a first triumph after losing three finals in the past.
In the second set, Monfils broke in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead on the back of two consecutive forehand errors from the young Russian.
The next game was a big battle as Rublev tried hard to get back on serve coming up with some terrific forehands.
He led 30-0 and had a couple of break points but Monfils stayed strong coming up with powerful ground strokes of his own and then an ace to complete the hold for 4-1.
Thereafter the games went with serve and Monfils easily wrapped up the win in just 61 minutes with some strong serves.
Rublev elaborated on the reasons for his loss: "I think I was completely tired today. I mean, you can see that even my shots was not the same energy like previous matches. I was doing a lot of mistakes, a lot of wrong shots."
"You can see even I was really slow today on the court. Every time he was move me to one side and most of the time it was almost over, or if I could catch one point then he was always killing me with the second.
You can see that today I was really had no energy, no power in the legs and the speed of the ball was not even close like it was previous matches," he added.
In Brisbane, Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios won the men's Brisbane International title, with a victory over American Ryan Harri- son in the summit clash on Sunday.
Kyrgios, world number 21, eased past Harrison 6-4 6-2 in a match which lasted for over an hour and 13 minutes, here at the Pat Rafter Arena on Sunday.
With this, the Australian lifted his fourth ATP Tour title, also his first on home soil.
The 22-year-old made his way into the finals of the tournament, following a three-set victory over Grigor Dimitr of Bulgaria
"I mean, previous matches was much faster and all this stuff and really tough for me. Yeah, I'm happy to be seeded. And of course I feel a little bit more confident."
On the other hand, Monfils was understandably elated after the win.