Matteo Berrettini was sent packing in the opening round of Montreal by Pablo Carreno Busta, while Gael Monfils advanced after a 3-month injury layoff.
Pablo Carreno Busta def. Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-2
Matteo Berrettini put in a surprisingly tame performance in his first event in the North American summer hard-court swing. The Italian was largely off-kilter from his first service game. Carreno Busta earned a pair of break point chances at 1-0, although Berrettini was eventually able to hold. The news got no better for the Italian from there. He held until 4-3 but donated a positively dismal service game to give the Spaniard the break at love.
The difficulties continued for Berrettini right away in the second set. Carreno Busta applied pressure in the Italian’s first service game, then got the break at 2-1. An insurance break at 4-2 sealed a tidy performance for Carreno Busta.
He will take on the Holger Rune in the second round after Rune defeated qualifier Fabio Fognini.
Gael Monfils def. Pedro Martinez 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-2
Veteran Gael Monfils delighted the Montreal crowd with a quality three-set win over the Spaniard Pedro Martinez. Monfils was back in his first match after surgery kept him sidelined for three months. The world No. 20 missed both the French Open and Wimbledon recovering from a foot issue.
Martinez did a good job staying within striking distance of Monfils until the tiebreaker. The Spaniard got up a mini-break early, but Monfils reeled off four points in a row from 4-2 down to snag the set. Martinez leveled things in the second set, but the Frenchman pocketed the match win with some brilliant play in the third.
Asked in his presser about the state of his injury, Monfils said, “So far, I feel okay. I’ll have to wait until tonight. My foot? It’s always when I’m cold…. I’m going to wait a couple hours to be too happy.”
The Frenchman will take on Maxime Cressy in the second round.
nice one, Monf