Monfils Eyes Grand Slam
Monfils Eyes Grand Slam
Sunday, July 4, 2004
Gael Monfils of France won the Boys' Singles Championships 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) to
remain on course for a potential Junior Grand Slam of all the majors.
To complete the set of four, the French 17-year-old must now go on and
capture the equivalent event at Flushing Meadows in September. And, on
current form, that is extremely likely. Only Stefan Edberg of Sweden in
1983 has achieved that feat.
For much of the 86-minute final, Monfils looked to be vulnerable as the
unseeded Miles Kasiri kept in touch with the top seed. Hitting the ball
cleanly, the Briton, keen to bring some pride back to the home game, was
not overawed by the occasion, nor by the noisy support his opponent was
receiving from a group behind the umpire's chair.
The compactly built Kasiri was well able to match his more gangly built
opponent, who was surprised by the Briton's early pressure on his serve.
With Kasiri attempting to be the first Briton to win the Boys' Championship
in 32 years and Monfils chasing his Grand Slam, the final settled into a
series of probes and counter-probes to establish respective weaknesses.
Monfils nearly made his first breakthrough in the fifth game, but Kasiri held
him off, successfully defending his corner with some positive serving on the
two occasions he was break point down. He pushed Monfils to the brink of a
break twice in the eighth game, but again some positive serving, this time
by the French boy, saved the day.
Two games later, Monfils was under pressure from some excellent returns as
Kasiri attacked him with some great play, one shot being a brilliant lob
that took his opponent by surprise.The roller coaster pattern of the first
set continued until Monfils suddenly raised the power of his ground-strokes,
going for broke with his shots in the 11th game. Striking powerful forehands,
he finally breached the Briton's defences to gain the elusive break. He
claimed the first set on his second set point, to the delight of his
supporters.
It proved a crucial stage of the match as he went on to string together eight
successive points to snatch an early break with the opening game of the
second. Monfils was now showing his class and looked set to run off with
the match but Kasiri displayed true British bulldog spirit, fighting his
way back into contention by levelling in the eighth game.
His gutsy performance continued for the remainder of the set and, much to
Monfils' frustration, into the tiebreak. At 6-6, the Briton's hopes of a
third set were dashed by his sixth double fault. It was a close call and
though he looked surprised, he accepted it with good grace. But it was an
unfortunate end to what was promising to be great joust by two equally
matched opponents.
The presentations were made on court, as Monfils' supporterers cheered and
sang. He revelled in his victory and was no doubt looking forward to making
a similar mark in the US Open.
Written by Henry Wancke
Court 3 - Boys' Singles - Finals
Gael Monfils FRA (1) 7 78
Miles Kasiri GBR 5 66
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雨過腥聞血，風旋雪裹身。
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