ATP Tour - Dubai - Monfils vs Uchiyama

The last match of the day was between the French Gaël Monfils and the Japanese Yasutaka Uchiyama. Monfils is the one who won against the Hungarian Márton Fucsovics, in a match that was intense and full of mistakes made by both, plus Gaël Monfils looked exhausted most of the time. I was curious to see what he is capable today. I didn't know the Japanese Yasutaka Uchiyama, have never seen him playing before.

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First of all Gaël Monfils showed up with his left leg bandaged, which wasn't a good sign. I don't know why he had his leg bandaged as at the last match he played with Fucsovics he was fine. Good thing his leg was fine, there was no reason to be concerned.

The beginning of the game was a great shock. Uchiyama looked lost, I'd even say bored, it looked like he has not played tennis for a long time. His shots were out of focus, he made mistake after mistake. He was probably not familiar with Monfis's game or he wasn't feeling well, I don't know what was the reason of so many mistakes. Monfils on the other hand seemed to be in his element, used every occasion to win.

The first set ended with 6 - 1 in Monfils's favor. The second set was more dynamic. Uchiyama seemed to get better at his game, although he continued to make the same mistakes, over and over again. He has managed to win two games but that wasn't enough for him, unfortunately.

I've not seen a player like Uchiyama at Dubai, maybe at the beginning there were players at Uchiyama level but at this point, before the quarters it's not usual. So far all the matches were tough.

The good thing in this is that Monfils had an easy match, without forcing himself to much. This is important as he's going to play soon with a good player and that will not be such an easy match.

At the end of the match he was asked about the bandage and he said it's just for protection, so it seems like there's nothing serious with his leg, or he didn't want to reveal his secret. They never do for a very good reason.