Frenchmen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils are making serious noise at the Paris Masters, but they will have their hands full on Friday. Tsonga is going up against Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals, while Monfils is facing Denis Shapovalov.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. (2) Rafael Nadal
Nadal and Tsonga will be meeting for the 14th time in their careers when they battle for a semifinal spot at the BNP Paribas Masters on Friday night. The head-to-head series stands at 9-4 in favor of Nadal, although three of Tsonga’s wins have come on hard courts and he has won three of their last seven encounters. The two veterans squared off for the first time since 2015 when they collided this summer at Wimbledon, where Nadal dominated 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.
That setting should have given Tsonga a decent chance and this one is no different. The 35th-ranked Frenchman is a former champion of this event (2008) and he is almost always at his best indoors. A recent champion in Metz, Tsonga has maintained his fine form this week with victories over Andrey Rublev, Matteo Berrettini, and Jan-Lennard Struff. Nadal, who is in tournament action for the first time since winning the U.S. Open, has advanced with straight-set defeats of Adrian Mannarino and Stan Wawrinka. Tsonga has endured extremely tough matches against Rublev and Struff, so a confident Nadal should not have too much trouble ending the crowd favorite’s run.
Pick: Nadal in 2
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Denis Shapovalov vs. (13) Gael Monfils
Under the radar for much of 2019, Monfils is suddenly one win away from a berth in the Nitto ATP Finals. The 13th-ranked Frenchman’s 37-17 record is sparkling, but additional injuries were such that almost no one thought he had a real shot at qualifying for the year-end championship. That has changed with a quarterfinal performance at the U.S. Open, a semifinal showing in Vienna, and Paris wins over Benoit Paire and Radu Albot.
Next up for Monfils on Friday is a second career contest against Shapovalov. They previously faced each other a couple of months ago at the U.S. Open, where Monfils survived one of the best matches of the fortnight 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3. Shapovalov has earned another shot at this week’s No. 13 seed by beating Gilles Simon, Fabio Fognini, and Alexander Zverev–the latter two in three sets. The 28th-ranked Canadian is flying high right now, having recently captured his first career ATP title in Stockholm. With the pressure on Monfils, who remains wildly inconsistent in terms of both form and health despite his overall success, this is a great opportunity for Shapovalov.
Pick: Shapovalov in 3
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Rafa plays the second semi n if he wins will have much less recovery time too (:-
Shapo now playing like a young Rafa, I mean he’s quick and powerful with explosive movements. He’s like the 17 yo Rafa at Miami, who played aggressive tennis against Fed, and moved to the net to finish points.
The difference is that Shapo has a big serve and plays an attacking style consistently, unlike Rafa who then becomes a counterpuncher rather than becoming an attacking player.
Rafa was injured before the match! They announced he had to withdraw!
I don’t know what happened. The match was about to start and they told the crowd that Rafa had to withdraw due to an injury!
On atp they are saying it’s an abdominal injury and Rafa hopes to play in London.