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Ilya Ivashka was extremely happy with his performance against Pablo Andujar in his Sofia opener as he is now excited about clashing Gael Monfils. Ivashka, who is enjoying a career-high ranking of No. 45 in the world, saw off Andujar 6-4 6-3 to reach the Sofia round-of-16.
“I think it was a good match for me,” Ivashka said following the win, per the ATP website. "I played very clean, I was serving really good”. Ivashka plays next No. 2 seed Monfils, who had a first round bye In Sofia.
Ivashka has nothing but good to say of Monfils ahead of their clash. "He’s a great opponent, he has a lot of experience and I hope it’s going to be a great match,” Ivashka said. “He’s a great guy and it’s always nice to play against him”.
Monfils unloaded on the French media
Last week, Monfils was the lone French player to make the Metz quarterfinal. For the first time in tournament history, only one French player made the quarterfinal. After being asked about that, Monfils went off.
“We must stop with this thing of zero French late in the tournament. Were the guys who lost their matches favorites? I am not sure. I find it hard to point the finger at them. It's hard enough to lose. Everyone is trying to win, we don't lose on purpose.
Yes, maybe we are performing not great this week. Yes, maybe it will be better next week. Yes, it was complicated in Grand Slams this year. But this is not an end. How many countries would dream of having as many players as us in the rankings? We're a great tennis nation, even if it gets a little harder from time to time.
We shouldn't put ourselves too high when we play well, but we should not point the finger too much when we lose. It hurts and we hope that will change quickly. The period was complicated, but we will come back," Monfils said.