ROTTERDAM TENNIS UPDATE – GAEL MONFILS WINS & SASHA ZVEREV TO FACE GILLES SIMON ON THURSDAY AT THE ABN / AMRO

Written by: Staff on 10th February 2016

ROTTERDAM TENNIS UPDATE - GAEL MONFILS WINS & SASHA ZVEREV TO FACE GILLES SIMON ON THURSDAY AT THE ABN / AMRO

epa05128780 Gael Monfils of France plays a shot against Milos Raonic of Canada during their quarter final match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 27 January 2016. EPA/DAVID CROSLING AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Monfils wins in Rotterdam, Zverev to face Simon on Thursday

By Ricky Dimon

Gael Monfils punched his ticket to the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament quarterfinals by battling past Borna Coric 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 during second-round action on Wednesday night. Monfils led by a set and a break before his serve collapsed. That helped bring Coric back in the match, but the Frenchman recovered to get the job done in one hour and 56 minutes.

“He is a good fighter,” Monfils said of his 19-year-old opponent. “I got a little bit tight at the end of the second set. But fortunately I came back strong in the third set. I served a bit faster and used my forehand well again. It was a very physical match. He was running a lot and very fast. We had some great rallies. He is very talented.”

The fifth awaits either Gilles Simon or Alexander Zverev on Friday.

Zverev, a semifinalist last week in Montpellier, got back in the winners’ circle with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Vasek Pospisil. The 18-year-old German held all 10 of his service games despite putting in only 53 percent of his first serves while recording zero aces and three double-faults.

France’s Gilles Simon in action against Robin Haase of the Netherlands during their first round match of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 10 February 2016. EPA/KOEN SUYK

A tough test is ahead of Zverev on Thursday and it will come in the form of Gilles Simon. The 15th-ranked Frenchman lost his opening match in Montpellier to Dustin Brown, but he made sure not to make the same mistake again. Simon survived a slow start and fought off a set point in the opening frame of play to beat Robin Haase 7-6(5), 6-1 on Wednesday.

Like Simon and Zverev, Viktor Troicki and Hyeon Chung will also be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers on Thursday. Few players–and not even Zverev–aside from the very best in the world are in better form than Troicki at the start of this 2016 season. The 22nd-ranked Serb is 11-3 on the year with a title in Sydney and runner-up showing last week in Sofia (lost to a red-hot Roberto Bautista Agut). Troicki made a quick turnaround to overcome Andrey Kuznetsov 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 in his Rotterdam opener on Wednesday.

Chung has peaked as high as No. 51 in the world and he currently registers at 69th. The 19-year-old is on the way back up thanks to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Tuesday. Inconsistency, though, will almost always be a problem for any teenager on the pro tour. Chung, for example, suffered a bad 6-2, 6-3 loss to Marius Copil in the Sofia opening round.