Ramos-Vinolas has had a breaktrough this clay season, reaching the final of Monte Carlo. En Route to the final in Monaco, the leftie Spaniard defeated Lucas Pouille as well. Before this match, Ramos-Vinolas dropped a set to Marius Copil, and beat Benjamin Bonzi in straight sets. Pouille was Ramos-Vinolas’ first real test in Paris, and he passed with flying colors. Pouille had a dodgy lead-up, losing opening rounds in Madrid and Rome. He had a tougher draw in Paris than his opponent today. He faced his countryman Julien Benneteau in the opening round and battled past, then beat Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil.
First set was dicatated by Ramos-Vinolas. The Spaniards unbreakable defense led to many terrific rallies, and Pouille just didn’t have the tools to get past it. Pouille’s serve was made ineffective by Ramos-Vinolas, winning only 36% of points after second serve. The Spaniard’s ability to get to almost all balls showed us why he has risen so high in the past 52 weeks. Pouille’s desperation brought on 18 unforced errors to Ramos-Vinolas’ 4, and the 19th seed took the opening set 6-2.
Pouille regrouped after the first set, played the aggressive game and ended points early. Ramos-Vinolas didn’t have a reply for that, so he tried to end points early, which didn’t work. At 3-0 for Pouille, the 16th seed slipped and seemed to hurt his ankle. He took a medical timeout, but continued without even taping it, so there seemed to be no injury. Pouille kept on with his active game , punished Ramos-Vinolas’ mistakes with 15 winners, and took the second set 6-3.
