World No. 14 David Goffin made a strong start to his Doha campaign and afterward admitted that he is currently in a great place. Goffin, seeded at No. 6, handed a straight-set defeat 6-4 6-4 to world No. 32 Filip Krajinovic of Serbia in the Doha first round on Tuesday.
Goffin earned the first break of the match in the seventh game, before serving out for the opener in the 10th game. In the second set, the Belgian broke the Serb in the fifth game and then served out for the match in the 10th game.
“I’m feeling great. I’m taking a lot of pleasure on the court. I’m feeling more relaxed, confident in my choices, [confident] with my serve. It’s a huge difference,” Goffin said, per the ATP website.
“I’m serving well, returning well, I’m solid. I’m feeling sharp for the moment. It’s great”.
Goffin’s baseline game again on point
“[It helps] a lot, because instead of going on the side on my groundstrokes, I just cut the angles,” Goffin said.
“I’m more confident to cut the trajectory and go more for the line maybe, so I’m more aggressive. I think my opponents, they feel it. They feel more pressure. They feel that I’m more into the court in front of my baseline”.
Two weeks ago, Goffin beat Roberto Bautista Agut in the Montpellier final to lift his first ATP title since 2017. “It’s never easy to win tournaments. This is my fifth and every tournament that I’ve won was very special,” Goffin said after beating Bautista Agut.
“I had some opportunities, I’ve had matches [where] I had zero chance to win in the final. Sometimes you take it, sometimes not. I’ve played some finals, but you need to continue, you need to improve your game, you need to fight and I’m happy that it paid off at the end.”