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5/11/10 4:07 PM | Ricky Dimon
Ernests Gulbis beats Estoril champion Albert Montanes in straight sets on Tuesday at the Madrid Masters. Gulbis, poised for a French Open seed, awaits either Mikhail Youzhny or Lukas Lacko.
World No. 34 Ernests Gulbis defeated world No. 33 Albert Montanes 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Tuesday afternoon.
It was a match that had implications beyond just the final clay-court Masters event of the season. Both men are on the brink of French Open seeding, and now Gulbis will pass Montanes and be in prime position for one of the 32 spots. Montanes will need some help, but he just might get it with all the injuries that are plaguing the ATP Tour at the moment.
For a while, however, it looked like Montanes would earn a Roland Garros seed on his own accord. Maintaining the momentum from having defended his Estoril Open title on Sunday, the Spaniard broke serve in the first game of the match and raced to a 2-0 lead. He held onto it until 5-4, when his groundstrokes suddenly collapsed. Gulbis broke to stay in the set for 5-5, held for 6-5, then added another routine break to finish off the opening frame of play in style.
The 21-year-old Latvian ended up winning seven straight games from 3-5 in the first to 3-0 in the second. His serve began to come together and the drop-shot started working while a reeling Montanes earned only one point on return the rest of the way after taking a 0-40 lead in the first game of the set. Montanes needed medical timeouts for a groin problem at both 0-3 and 1-4 before Gulbis won the final two games.
Despite a poor start, Gulbis finished with a solid 23 winners and 23 errors. He struck six aces and double-faulted just once, and also won 65 percent of his second-serve return points. After one hour and 36 minutes, Gulbis set up a second-round clash with either Lukas Lacko or Munich champion Mikhail Youzhny.
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edit:
Hewitt is not playing and Kohlschreiber lost in the first round. Gulbis just passed both of them as well and is therefore up to 31. A guaranteed lock.
Montanes passes Kohlschreiber by 5 points (but he didnt gain any so he wont pass Hewitt) so he is still at 34. In VERY good shape.
RickyDimon , 5/11/10 4:25 PM
Gulbis, you are a pain in the neck to that half of the draw :-]]
ohh Youzhny could be your babysitter next round.
Vomit !!!
Raindrops , 5/11/10 4:55 PM
thanks ricky..
i believe davy is not expected to come back either until gras court season is over..
so montanes should get the seed.
clayking , 5/11/10 5:00 PM
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Gulbis is a near lock. He is up to 33 (passing Montanes) which is really 32 with Del Potro guaranteed out. Karlovic and Almagro could still pass, but Karlovic plays Verdasco and Almagro plays Soderling.
Montanes is down to 35 (passed by Gulbis and Almagro). He will only drop to 36 if Karlovic beats Verdasco. So he either needs 3 pullouts or 4 pullouts. He already has one from Del Potro. He will most likely get plenty of others, possibly from Stepanek, Simon, Davydenko, etc.
RickyDimon , 5/11/10 4:17 PM