Stepanek easily upsets tired Monfils in final
In a year when Czech goalkeeper Michal Neuvirth manned the nets for the Capitals and Czech basketball player Jan Vesely was selected by the Wizards in the NBA Draft, an unlikely Czech tennis player came to Washington and won a championship.
On Sunday, a well-rested and strategically superior 32-year-old Radek Stepanek undid top-seeded Gael Monfils with a precise 6-4, 6-4 victory that made him the oldest Legg Mason Tennis Classic winner since 35-year-old Jimmy Connors in 1988. The last Czech player to win the tournament was Petr Korda — who is now Stepanek’s coach — in 1992.
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“I do the worm only when I win,” Stepanek said of his on-court celebration, which was more personal than patriotic, though it included a brief wave of a Czech flag. “The emotions are there, winning such a big tournament at this stage of my career. It’s great satisfaction for me.”
Monfils, who was forced by the weather to play twice Thursday and was back on the stadium court at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center a mere 14 hours after outlasting John Isner in a rain-delayed semifinal that ended at 1:16 a.m. Sunday morning, showed only flashes of his usual animated and explosive self. After going to bed at 4 a.m. — by comparison, Stepanek fell asleep at 9:30 p.m., having finished his semifinal Saturday afternoon — Monfils said he “was a fraction slower.”
In Sunday’s final, which fell victim to two delays that lasted just short of one hour, Stepanek didn’t win the glory points — Monfils chased down unreachable shots and made a leaping overhead save of a Stepanek smash — but dictated nearly every rally and won more than half of his points (29 of 57) at the net.
“I wanted to be in control of the match, be the boss on the court, the one who is deciding what is going to go on,” Stepanek said.
Monfils, 24 years old and No.?7 in the world, stared down his racket after he lost his serve in the opening game of the second set and later flung it haplessly in the air at a Stepanek overhead. He was left flat on his back after a futile forehand swing as Stepanek came back from 15-30 down to ice the match at 5-3.
“To be honest, I think I am unlucky because every time I have something,” said Monfils, who dropped to 3-11 for his career in ATP finals. “Today I finished at 1:15 a.m., and I never had a chance to get a good rest.”
Stepanek pocketed a $264,000 winner’s check and is expected to jump his ranking more than 20 places.
“We are like a wine,” Stepanek said. “The older we are getting, the better we are. I always say that age doesn’t matter. It depends how you feel. I’m trying to put the hard work [in] until my body falls apart. I’ll be trying to stay competitive at this level.”
