Diego “El Peque” Schwartzman bagels Gael “La Monf” Monfils to open play at UTS Frankfurt

The second Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) event of the year is here already, and fans in Frankfurt have been treated to a one-sided match between Diego “El Peque” Schwartzman and Gael “La Monf” Monfils to kick things off on Friday.

Form on the ATP Tour counted for little in this clash, with the Argentinian recording only the second three quarters to love score in UTS this year against a languid La Monf.

“I know that maybe at the beginning it’s a little bit weird with all the new rules,” said El Peque after his victory to the Frankfurt crowd. “But it’s going to be nice the entire weekend, so everyone please enjoy.”

Monfils starts slow against Schwartzman at UTS Frankfurt

A fortnight ago, Gael Monfils celebrated his 37th birthday, a day after losing to Andrey Rublev in four sets at the US Open.

The Frenchman’s age was on show at UTS Frankfurt in his opening match, with the 37-year-old himself declaring, “I feel a little bit slow, very slow.”

While it’s undeniable that La Monf struggled to get the cogs turning early on day one of the tournament, his opponent had no such problem. El Peque began this match firing sharp forehands, winning all of the longer rallies and looking solid behind his serve.

The Argentinian, who has struggled on the ATP Tour over the past 18 months, quickly raced out to a 6-2 lead in the opening set. Despite being one of the shortest professional players, El Peque—which means “the little one”—even put away a beautiful overhead shot to assert himself on the first quarter against Monfils.

As the quarter wore on, La Monf became increasingly irritated with his play, as the Frenchman could not catch a break, while Schwartzman continued catching lines and pulling ahead.

At 12-8, it seemed as though Monfils may get a foothold back in the quarter when he played his next point counts for three card, however El Peque defended beautifully to take a 17-8 lead into quarter point, winning on his first opportunity.

El Peque makes lines, La Monf has whines

With the one-sided opening quarter, the crowd at UTS Frankfurt were behind La Monf, hoping that the Frenchman could turn this match into more of a contest.

At the previous UTS event in Los Angeles, all of Schwartzman’s matches went to sudden death, while only one match across the entire tournament ended in a 3-0 score line.

However, the La Monf comeback that everyone was hoping for never eventuated, as the 37-year-old continued misfiring—a dropped racquet on serve, plenty of missed serves, and constant spraying of balls long and wide. At the other end of the court, El Peque was rock solid, not missing a single serve across the first two quarters, and playing with great depth and angle.

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The second quarter saw one of the biggest margins in UTS this year, with Schwartzman winning 24-5. While the third began well for La Monf with the Frenchman winning an 18-ball rally to go 1-0, again the Argentinian worked his way into a healthy lead, getting ahead 14-6. La Monf played his UTS card well, and defending El Peque’s, heading into quarter point at 15-12, but was unable to execute the comeback, falling in the third quarter 16-13.

“I feel like at home, everything was working, I played a great match,” Schwartzman said after his victory.

Lucky for El Peque that he began so strong, as the Argentinian will be back on court in less than an hour’s time, taking on Andrey “Rublo” Rublev in his second match of the day.

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