At the 3rd round of the Monte Carlo Masters, Roger Federer – the world number 2 and defending champion Stan Wawrinka both concealed defeats.
Wawrinka – world number 9 and 2014 Australian Open champion, secured a win against fellow Swiss Federer last year to win his first and only Masters 1000 title. However, this year he was defeated 6-1 6-2 by Bulgaria’s world number 11 Dimitrov in under an hour.
Frenchman Gael Monfils, the world number 18 and 14th seed beat Federer 6-4 7-6 (7-5).
It was a second consecutive win on clay for Monfils over the 17-time Grand Slam champion after his straight sets victory during last year’s Davis Cup final.
Federer, 33, who has been beaten 4 times in Monte Carlo Masters, was competing for the first time since losing to Novak Djokovic in the Indian Wells final approximately 4 weeks ago. He was broken in the 9th game of the first set and then squandered a 5-3 lead in the second set tie-break, losing 4 successive points.
Interestingly, Wawrinka had won 2 of the previous 3 meetings with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, including a clay court encounter at the 2013 World Tour Masters in Madrid. Nevertheless, the 30-year-old Swiss made 41 unforced errors and had only 4 winners against the 9th seed. He was guilty of 13 of those unforced errors as Dimitrov raced 4-0 ahead, and failed to convert 4 break points in the 6th game of the 2nd set.
“It was a good week for me anyway to come here and practice with the best, play a couple of matches. At least it gives me some information, if I’m trying to be a bit positive right now. – said Federer.
“It was not the best end to the match,” Federer told reporters. “I should have done better with the break up in the first. I think I did a good job to hang around the second set. I also had chances of my own.
“I never felt like things were really happening the way I wanted them to be going during the whole match.”
“I’m going to go back to Switzerland and practice really hard, you know, from whatever the plan’s going to be from tonight on until Istanbul.
“This is good time I should utilise in the right way. I’m looking forward to that.
“I’m playing Istanbul, Madrid. We’ll see what happens with Rome. It was never sure I was going to play that anyway.”
Dimitrov will now meet Monfils in the quarter-finals.
Stanislas Wawrinka vs. Grigor Dimitrov, 16/04/2015, 08:40 GMT, Match center
Gael Monfils vs Roger Federer, 16/04/2015, 10:10 GMT, Match center
Monte Carlo Masters: Federer and Wawrinka out
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