Jannik Sinner held off Gael Monfils 6-3 3-6 6-3 to reach the quarter finals for the second consecutive year at the ABN AMRO at the Rotterdam Ahoy.
Sinner broke serve in the second game and held on his next service games to clinch the first set 6-3.
Monfils converted his only break point of the match in the fourth game of the second set and won his service games to close it out 6-3 forcing the match to the decider.
Monfils hit 21 winners compared to Sinner’s 13, but Sinner earned an early break to love in the second game of the third set after a double fault from Monfils. Sinner sealed the win on his second match point after 1 hour and 53 minutes. Sinner won 76% of his first serve points.
Sinner stopped Monfils’ 11-match winning streak in Rotterdam. The Frenchman won two editions of the Dutch ATP 500 tournament in 2019 and 2020.
Sinner, who is playing his first ATP Tour tournament since winning his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open last January, will play against Milos Raonic in the first head-to-head match of their career in the quarter final on Friday evening.
“It was one shaky game of mine in the second set and things changed so fast. I still believe that these kind of matches help me a lot, especially on the mental part. When you don’t play your best tennis and you still try somehow to find your way to win. Against him, it is never easy. I have the feeling that we know each other a little bit better now, and he changed some things, as I do, and today went my way. I think Gael is an incredible showman. All the crowd and the people love him. I think that’s what this sport needs. I wish that we will keep going as long as possible and hopefully I can share the court with him as many times as possible because he such an amazing player”, said Sinner.
Emil Ruusuvuori beat Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3 6-3. Ruusuvuori earned the first break of the match in the sixth game and served it out on his second set point. Both players traded breaks in the first two games of the second set. Ruusuvuori broke serve at 15 in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. The Finnish player closed it out with a break on his second match point.
