Gael Monfils kept his level high by upsetting Toronto finalist Alex de Minaur with a fabulous performance at the 2023 Cincinnati Masters.
Monfils has been nothing short of spectacular in Toronto, but his run finished in the quarter-final of the ATP 1000 event against Jannik Sinner. It was de Minaur whom the Italian smashed in the event's final to win his biggest trophy to date, and now Monfils bested him too.
It wasn't a smashing but a rather hard-fought victory for the veteran who is showing his best level in a long time. Monfils struggled with his serve in this one, hitting it sporadically, but he did well in rallies opting for an aggressive approach that worked fabulously.
de Minaur isn't generally a player that will overwhelm you with his power but rather wear you down with long rallies. Monfils wasn't interested in playing that and had twice as many winners as de Minaur in an effort to keep the rallies short.
It worked because he converted two of the six break points he had while saving both he allowed de Minaur in the match. The first few games didn't have much excitement, but things got heated towards the end of the set, with Monfils proving the calmer player.
It's generally the opposite, as he can be quite erratic, but with age comes maturity, as they say, and we're seeing that in the last few years. The second set saw Monfils apply heavy pressure from the start missing out on a few break points at 1-1, but he didn't make the same mistake at 2-2, finally breaking 3-2.
From there, it was a rather comfortable cruise towards the finish line. The final score was 7-5 6-4 for Monfils, who finished the match with an impressive 34 winners and 11 unforced errors. He will face either Novak Djokovic or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
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