Gael Monfils Reaches First Final In 21 Months At Stockholm Open
Gael Monfils is back to playing really strong tennis as he booked his first ATP final in 21 months at the 2023 Stockholm Open.
Monfils is a former champion in the Swedish capital, so seeing him playing well here is not a huge surprise. He's done it in the past, but what is surprising is the level he's produced all week long.
It's been quite spectacular and a lot better than what he showed at the Laver Cup, where he last played. It's also better than his one leading up to the US Open, where he had a really strong showing in Toronto.
It's good to see the fan favourite back to winning ways, especially when he's having as much fun as he had in the match against Laslo Djere. It was a great performance by Monfils who overwhelmed Djere fairly quickly with his baseline play.
He's not been known as an aggressive player in his career but has adopted that mindset in recent years as he can't play the way he used to.
It's working out well for him at times, especially today. The opening set saw him force Djere into many errors as the Serbian smacked 11 unforced errors in 12 games. Monfils was actually up 4-1 early but allowed Djere to battle back; however, the French player escaped with 7-5.
The second set was more impressive as he started hitting the ball well and completely outplayed Djere. Monfils totaled over ten winners in the second set as he took an early break and cruised after that.
It was a pretty special showing from Monfils, who had 16 winners overall and only 3 unforced errors in the 7-5 6-2 win over Djere.
He'll contest the final against Russian Pavel Kotov on Sunday. That's a pretty good chance for the veteran to win a trophy.
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