Monfils upsets World No 10 Cilic in 1st round of Dubai Tennis Championship

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Patna : World No 23 Gael Monfils, 32, France, upset World No 10 and 3rd seed Marin Cilic, 30, Croatia, in the first round od Dubai Tennis Championship, an ATP World Tour 500 points tournament played on hard courts, at Dubai, UAE, on February 26, 2019.

Monfils beat Cilic in three-sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 to enter the second round. Monfils fired 7 Aces in the match to 1 by Cilic. Both the players committed one double fault each. Monfils broke Cilic’s service 5 times in the match while the latter broke his service only once. Monfils won 6 games in a row in the match to 3 by Cilic. Monfils’ winning percentage on both his first and second serve ( 81% & 64%) was much better than that of Cilic ( 67%&38%).

World No 6 and top seed Kei Nishikori, 29, Japan, beat World No 65 Benoit Paire, 29, France, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round in 1hr 21 minute. Nishikori broke Paire’s service thrice in the match besides winning 3 games in a row. Baire served 4 Aces to 2 by Nishikori.

World No 88 Tomas Berdych, 33, Czech Republic, beat World No 98 Ilya Ivashka, 25, Belarus, a qualifier, in three-sets 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 in the first round. Ivashka though fired 12 Aces in the match to 6 by Berdych. But, Ivashka also committed 6 double faults to 4 by Berdych. Both the players broke service of each other twice. Both of them also won 3 games each in a row in the match.