Gael Monfils in full flight can be a hard juggernaut to stop — as Stefanos Tsitsipas found out Wednesday at the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.
The Frenchman delivered a dazzling second-round display to upset the fourth-seeded Tsitsipas 6-4, 6-3 at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Toronto. An energised Monfils, playing just his 11th match of the year due to injury, produced several moments of breathtaking power and skill en route to a one-hour, 25-minute triumph.
Wednesday’s win was Monfils’ 350th tour-level triumph on hard courts and can be seen as a statement that the 36-year-old is getting back to his crowd-pleasing best after limited appearances in 2023. The Frenchman converted three of six break points he earned to down Tsitsipas, an ATP 250 champion in Los Cabos just four days ago.
“I knew that Stef had a lot of confidence,” said Monfils after the match. “He would try to go for his shots. I tried to put a lot of balls in, tried to hit quite heavy and not let him dictate too much. I think I did it well.”
Highlights of Monfils’ performance included a trademark jumping forehand in the eighth game of the first set and a 188 km/h forehand winner to bring up set point two games later. It was Monfils’ first win against a Top 5 opponent since he defeated then-World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in Indian Wells last year.
Monfils struggled to finish off Christopher Eubanks in his Toronto opener, being forced to a third set by the American after letting slip two match points. There were no such issues against Tsitsipas, as he confidently levelled the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series at 2-2.
“It’s always the same. Stay very calm in the head and go for a simple choice,” said Monfils when asked about closing out the match against the Greek. “Maybe I was too simple on the first match point [today] because I could maybe have un leashed one forehand more, but he did it before me. To be honest, I just tried to be cool and try to do what I did during the match. No panic, in a way.”
A two-time semi-finalist at the Canadian Masters 1000 event, Monfils will take on Sebastian Korda or Aleksandar Vukic in the third round.