Hewitt Humbles Monfils, Henman, Haas Advance at ATP Masters Series Paris

Posted on November 2, 2004

No surprises at the Masters Series-Paris Tuesday, with four seeds advancing in (2) Lleyton Hewitt (d. (Q) Monfils), (3) Tim Henman (d. Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan), (11) Andrei Pavel (d. Mardy "Silver" Fish), and (18) Tommy Haas (d. (LL) Xavier "X-Man" Malisse), all in straight sets.

In fact, with Roger Federer already having sewed-up the year-end No. 1 ranking, and the Masters Cup field already settled after the injury withdrawals of Andre Agassi and David Nalbandian (among most of the Top 10), the Paris event that yearly provides high drama is now just another week waiting to pass before the Masters Cup.

In subduing the junior No. 1 Monfils, Hewitt said he started letting the match slip in the second set, which went to a tiebreak before he put it away.

"I felt like I could have easily been 6-3, 6-2 out there, and in the end you get in a bit of a dogfight for the second set," Hewitt said. "But to his credit, he kept hanging in there. When I had breakpoint to go up 4-1 double break in the second set, he came up with a massive forehand up the line, when I felt like I had the point pretty much won. So he's got a lot of talent out there. He's a very flashy player, like a lot of the top French players are."

For Monfils, the match was a confirmation of his successful transition from No. 1 junior to tour-level player.

"What I'm pleased about is that there's not a major difference between him and me," Monfils said. "That's what I'm happy about. Yes, I thought it would be more difficult. I thought the score would be bad for me. But, in fact, I worked a lot. I have still a lot of work to do in the future but, in fact, the gap between him and me is not that large."

Un-seeds advancing were Armenia's own Sargis "Sarge" Sargsian (d. T.Johansson), Swede Robin Soderling (d. (LL) Sanguinetti, bagel in the third), Spaniard Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez (d. Rainer "Shine" Schuettler), bouncing Czech (Q) Radek Stepanek (d. Llodra), Croat Ivan Ljubicic (d. (WC) Clement), and Russians Nikolay Davydenko (d. Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco) and Mikhail Youzhny (d. Bjorkman).

Wednesday's schedule is (7) Gaudio vs. F-Lo, (12) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty vs. (WC) Saulnier, (13) Canas vs. (Q) Tsonga, (6) Safin vs. Ljubicic (Croat leads meetings 2-1), (1) Roddick vs. Sarge, (Q) The Beast vs. (15) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez, (Q) Stepanek vs. (LL) Hanescu, Youzhny vs. (16) Novak, Spadea vs. Davydenko (Spadea leads 2-0), (14) Massu vs. (Q) C.Rochus, and Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer vs. (10) Robredo.

Doubles match-ups of note are Frenchmen (WC)Benneteau/Mahut vs. (2)Bryan/Bryan, Aussies Arthurs/Hanley vs. (3)Bjorkman/Woodbridge, and world No. 1s Knowles/Nestor vs. Zimbabwe's Black/Ullyett.