For his first match of the season on clay, Gaël Monfils did not take half measures.
Absent in Monte Carlo last month due to pain in his right foot, the French number one easily beat the young Spaniard Carlos Gimeno Valero (6-3, 6-0) in the first round of the Masters 1000 in Madrid.
After a start to the match hung in the Caja Magicathe Parisian managed to unfold against the 369th in the world, invited by the organizers and who gave a lot of points to his opponent, especially in a one-sided second set.
In 54 minutes, Monfils did not have to work hard to reach the second round, where world number one Novak Djokovic awaits him, for a poster that promises a lot…
The opportunity to gauge the state of form of the two players, three weeks before Roland Garros.
Pair gives in against Schwartzman
On the other hand, the Madrid adventure ends there for Benoit Paire. The Avignonnais, out of qualifying this weekend, lost to the Argentinian Diego Schwartzman (6-2, 6-7, 6-1), seeded number 13 in the Spanish Masters 1000.
Apathetic in the first round, the 62nd in the world revved up in a second set where the two players did not concede a single break point. Led 3-0 in the tie-break, Paire was able to raise his level of play at the right time to equalize.
The Vauclusien then fished in the decisive round, unlike the galloping Argentinian, who never did better than a third round in the Spanish capital.