Cameron Norrie is not playing very good tennis right now, and Gael Monfils managed to take advantage of that advancing past him at the Cincinnati Masters.
Monfils played really great tennis last week in Toronto, making his way to the quarter-final, where he lost to the eventual champion of the ATP 1000 event, Jannik Sinner. The French player finally found his form after battling injuries for much of this year, and it was a pretty important thing for him.
Unfortunately, he's never too far from an injury, and he suffered another injury scare during the match against Norrie experiencing pain in his knee. He looked quite concerned and called the physio but continued playing after that despite limping for a while. He played well, especially after dropping the first set, but he could have probably won that one too.
He was up 2-0 early but allowed Norrie to fight his way back into the match as he struggled with his serve. He has always depended heavily on his serve, and he didn't really have it at times tonight, so once Norrie found his rhythm, the Brit cruised.
The second set saw Monfils find his serve, and it made a difference immediately. He had easier and quicker points and posted nine winners en route to a 6-4 finish. He threw away a lead midway through the set but broke Norrie in the final game of the second set to take it.
The final set opened with an early break, which was a surprise, considering Monfils had all the momentum. It didn't matter much as the French player went on to win four games in a row to put himself in a great position to win the match.
He did so with the final score being 3-6 6-4 6-3. He awaits the winner of the match between Alex de Minaur and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. We'll see what happens with the knee, but it didn't seem to bother him too much after the scare.
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