In one of the marquee matchups at the Shanghai Masters on Monday, Stefanos Tsitsipas held off Gael Monfils 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-4 after two hours and 21 minutes. Both players broke serve three times and Tsitsipas finished with just four more total points than Monfils (107 to 103).
“It was a weird game, lots of service breaks (and) many long rallies in the match,” Tsitsipas commented. “Gael has a rhythm that’s not very comfortable when you’re on the other side of the net. You never know what to expect. Sometimes the ball comes slower; sometimes the ball comes faster. So it confuses you. There are not many players that play this way.
“It was very, very hard, because he was serving pretty well,” the 20-year-old Greek said of Monfils, who fired 11 aces but also double-faulted five times. “My serve was alright. I managed to open the court well with my serve, take the forehands, and try to come to the net. But I managed to stay patient. I got broken when serving for the match in the third set. I remained calm and focused and then went back in the next game and broke him, which I believe is a big strength from my side. It shows good character.”
Monday highlights:
Tsitsipas is joined in the second round by Americans Mackenzie McDonald and Bradley Klahn, who engineered respective upsets of Milos Raonic and Nick Kyrgios. McDonald all but ended Raonic’s Nitto ATP Finals hopes with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory, while Klahn ousted Kyrgios 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Borna Coric also advanced on Monday, battling his way into the last 32 with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Stan Wawrinka. Coric withstood 14 aces off the Wawrinka racket and the Swiss double-faulted just once, but one service donation in each of the final two sets proved to be the difference.
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nice one, Macki