Monfils and Evans advance at the ABN AMRO WTT 2020

Fresh off his last week tournament victory Monfils continued his great run in Rotterdam. While he didn't play the greatest of matches he did defeat his opponent in straight sets. We noted that Monfils didn't play a great match but his endeavor was aided by Sousa who played a terrible match. The lack of focus by Monfils in key moments meant he had to play a longer match that it could have been.

In both sets, Monfils had a chance to be two breaks up but he only seized that opportunity in the 2nd set. He did serve pretty well hitting 68 % of his 1st serves with 5 aces and only one double fault. His opponent was quite bad on his own serve hitting only 48 % of his 1st serves and winning only 56 % of those points.

After Monfils, the Rotterdam crowd had the chance to see a match between Khachanov and Evans. Khachanov was pretty good early on and he managed to win the 1st set 6-4. Both players were spectacular on the 1st serve winning over 80 % of those points. Evans actually served better as he hit his 1st serve at a better rate but one bad game early one in the game proved crucial.

The second set was much better by the Brit. He continued to serve well while raising his level of play on Khachanov's serve. An early break for Evans aided him in that endeavor and allowed him to take a 4-2 lead. He would build on that and win the 2nd set 6-4.

Evans started out the match better as he broke Khachanov early to take a 2-1 lead. Some solid games later he found himself up 5-1. Khachanov had multiple consecutive errors and looked nervous. He managed to compose himself a bit and win the next two games to make it 5-3. Ultimately he couldn't complete the comeback and lost 6-4. Khachanov struggled with his 1st serve in the 3rd set hitting it below 50 % of the time. That proved crucial in the end as he couldn't fight back from being two breaks down.

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