David Goffin cruised through to a comfortable 6-2 6-1 win against his compatriot Steve Darcis in all- Belgian first round match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters on a sunny afternoon.
Goffin dropped just three of his second serve points to clinch his 20th win of the match.
Darcis saved a break point in the first game and held his serve for 1-0. Goffin got two consecutive breaks in the third and fifth games to race out to a 4-1 lead. Darcis held his serve in the seventh game after saving three break points. Goffin had to fend off a break point in the eighth game before holding his serve at deuce.
Goffin got an early break in the first game of the second set. He went up a double break on his fourth opportunity to race out to a 4-0 lead in the second set. Darcis got his first game on the scoreboard in the fifth game by holding his serve to 30. Goffin sealed the win with his third break to 30 in the seventh game. Goffin will face either Nicolas Almagro or a qualifier.
“I played well from the start. We had long rallies and I was solid. I made him run a lot. I was playing very well tactically. I was playing the right way. I was able to protect my serve with my second serve. I was very solid. I am very happy with that. It’s never easy to play against a friend. Lately I have been playing those matches pretty well. They are special matches”, said Goffin.
Gilles Simon eased past Malek Jaziri 6-2 6-2 in 78 minutes setting up a second round match against Novak Djokovic. The Serbian player leads 10-1 in his previous 11 head-to-head matches against Simon but had to dig deep to beat his French rival in five sets at the 2016 Australian Open. Simon got the first break of the match in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. Jaziri broke straight back in the next game but Simon broke twice in the sixth and eighth games to seal the first set 6-2. The player from Nice went up a double break to race out to a 4-0 lead. Jaziri got one break back in the fifth game for 1-4 but Simon converted his third break point in the final game to seal the second set 6-2.
“It was not perfect, but it was still solid. I will take this as it is”, said Simon.
Joao Sousa fired six aces to beat Florian Mayer 6-3 6-2 setting up a second round match against either Pablo Cuevas or Viktor Troicki.
Six players Adrian Mannarino, Jan-Lennart Struff, Martin Klizan, Carlos Berloq, Andrey Kuznetsov, Guillermo Garcia Lopez and Renzo Olivo got through the qualifying round to advance to the Main Draw.
Fabio Fognini and Stan Wawrinka beat Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor 6-4 7-6 (7-2) to reach the second round in the doubles tournament.
