Gael Monfils hasn't played much since the US Open, and he got his first win since the event by beating Marton Fucsovics in three sets at the 2023 Stockholm Open.
This was a very interesting match between Monfils, who is slowly coming to the end of his career on the ATP Tour, and Marton Fucsovics, who is struggling to find his best tennis.
The Hungarian is very good at times and has been really good this year, but he didn't really find his best in this match. He did look spectacular in the opening set when he smashed a very erratic Monfils 6-2, but that was mostly because the Frenchman himself wasn't doing that well.
He's always been a very good indoor player, thanks to his serve and athleticism, but the latter is slowly fading away, which makes it harder for him to win. The second set saw Monfils respond really well by giving his opponent a taste of his own medicine.
The score was 6-2, so the same as in the opening set as Monfils found his rhythm and attacked Fucsovics, who called for a medical timeout due to a physical problem.
We don't know what happened, but he did look worse than he did at the start of the match, so there is a solid chance that this had something to do with it.
The final set saw Monfils overwhelm the struggling Fucsovics at the start of the set but then slowly lose that momentum. Despite throwing away an early lead, Monfils still managed to close out the match by applying heavy pressure on Fucsovics towards the end of the match.
The final score was 2-6 6-2 7-5 for the French veteran, who finally won a match since the US Open. He only played at the Laver Cup since that event, but that was a loss to Felix Auger-Aliassime. He's going to play Filip Misolic in the next round.
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