Gaël Monfils may be 36 years old and have fallen to 276th in the world, but he still has some good remains. The whimsical French player proved it in the most beautiful way during the Canadian Masters 1000 in Toronto, this Wednesday, August 9, by beating the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (6-3 6-4).
This is Monfils’ first victory against an ATP Top 10 for the first time since March 2022 and a win over then-world No. 1 Danil Medvedev at the Indian Wells Masters 1000. It is only his third success against one of the ten best players in the world since 2019.
Once again very supported by the Canadian public, Monfils achieved a controlled first set, in which he broke away at 4-2 after taking the serve of his opponent. He concluded with a shutout to pocket it 6-4.
Aggressive in forehand, he started the second set on the same basis, managing to break Tsitsipas from the start. He converted his second match point to win on the Greek serve 6-3 in 1h 26min. Tsitsipas, yet winner of the tenth title of his career, Saturday, at the ATP 250 tournament in Los Cabos, committed too many unforced errors and lacked serenity on his face-off to overturn the match.
“I knew Stefanos [Tsitsipas] was very confident right now after his last tournament win. So you had to hit hard, put in a lot and not let the game dictate,” said Monfils after the match, as he left the court. In the first round, he had already put in a solid performance by dismissing Christopher Eubanks, 29th and recent surprise quarter-finalist at Wimbledon, 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (4/7), 6-1.
By winning his 350th victory on hard surface, the Parisian confirms his return to form by therefore chaining a second consecutive tournament with two victories, a week after that of Washington. He will face American Sebastian Korda or Australian Aleksandar Vukic in the next round for a place in the quarter-finals.