German qualifier Philipp Petzschner (pictured) capped off an amazing week by defeating No. 8 seed Gael Monfils, 6-4, 6-4, to capture the Bank Austria-Tennis Trophy in Vienna. Entering this week’s tournament ranked at No. 125, Petzschner is now guaranteed to break into the Top 100 near No. 70 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings that will be released on Monday.In a very tight two set battle, the German was able to break Monfils in the fifth game of the first set on his fourth break point chance. Responding back quickly, the 22-year-old Frenchman promptly broke back to even things at 4-4. As quick as that happened, Petzschner broke right back to go up 5-4 and then held serve to win the first set, 6-4, in 42 minutes. In the second set Petzschner broke Monfils in the ninth game and then served it out to win, 6-4, and claim his first career ATP singles title. In the 90 minute match, Monfils hit more aces with six, but the German was able to put up better serving numbers, by winning 72 percent of first serve points and dropping only six points on his second serve.
With the victory on Sunday, Petzschner becomes the 10th player in 2008 to win his first career ATP title. The German becomes the first qualifier to win the Vienna event since Belgian Filip Dewulf won the title in 1995. He also is the first German native to win here since Tommy Haas claimed the Vienna title in 2001.
Monfils, who was once the top ranked junior in the world, was looking to claim his second career title, after winning the 2005 Sopot title. Monfils will be ranked No. 19 in the rankings released tomorrow, which will be the first time he has been ranked inside the Top 20 since turning pro in 2004.
Petzschner improves to 10-8 on the year, which has been highlighted by his great week in Vienna and a quarterfinal performance in Bangkok several weeks ago. Monfils, a semifinalist at Roland Garros in May, falls to 26-15 on the season.
Posts
2 comments:
Who??? Good write up. You think this guy will be good and crack the top 10 or 20 in the next year or two, or is it too early to tell?
G:
Thanks for your comment and I'm glad you enjoyed the blog post about the Vienna finals!
An interesting fact about Philipp Petzschner and his week in Vienna is that he got off his flight to Austria 3 hours before he played his first qualifying match and then won every single match he played his entire time at the Vienna event. The 24-year-old has a lot of potential and since he is now ranked No. 72 in the world he will have a chance to get into a lot of tournaments without having to play qualifying.
I saw Petzschner play at the US Open a few years ago and he looked sharp. He was grinding it out on one of the side courts against a seeded players, who I think he defeated in 5 sets. Unfortunately after that match I didn't hear much about him. I'm glad he is back on the tennis radar!!
Post a Comment