Former top-ten player Gael Monfils of France was forced to retire in the final of the Winston-Salem Open on Saturday, thereby handing the title to Austria’s Jurgen Melzer. World number 32 Melzer was in fact leading the Frenchman 6-3, 2-1 before a left hip injury happened for Monfils.
Melzer received $76,900 in prize money plus 250 ranking points. The victory will propel his ranking to number 27 in the world.
“He’s such a great player, so I was trying to focus on my things that I’ve been doing well this week,” Melzer said. “I was trying to be aggressive and go to the net as much as I could. The game before he retired he was serving really slowly and I missed a lot of returns because I knew if I broke him it could be the end and you get a little tight. Nobody wants to win a final like that, you want to be out there competing, but at the end of the day you take the title.”
Melzer will travel to New York for the US Open Championships which begins on Monday, August 26. He’s slated to meet Russia’s Evgeny Donskoy in the opening round.
Despite the loss, Monfils is still making progress this season which saw his ranking drop to as low as 108 in February. His final run this week guarantees his return to the world’s top 40.
“I started to feel it yesterday,” Monfils said. “I had a sharp pain. After about 50 minutes [today], I tried to serve at full speed, and that was it. I felt like something snapped a little bit and it was really painful. It was tough to continue. I will try to get an x-ray tonight and see what’s going on.”
