Gaël Monfils, at the end of a successful week, lost Friday in the quarter-finals of the Masters 1000 in Toronto, against the 8th player in the world, the Italian Jannik Sinner, in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 6 -3. Despite this defeat, the Frenchman’s career in Canada marks a return to the fore, at 36, after a long period of repeated injuries. In Toronto, Monfils indeed successively dominated the American Christopher Eubanks, 29th at the ATP, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, 4th player in the world, then the Australian Aleksandar Vukic. Falling to 276th in the world, Gaël Monfils is guaranteed to gain nearly 70 places in the next ranking to be published on Monday by the ATP.
Friday, against Sinner, the seeded N.7, he also did not go far from a new feat, only losing after three sets and 2h22 minutes of play. “It was very hard “, has also recognized the Italian after the meeting. “In the second set I made a few unforced errors but he also upped his game. In the third set I tried to stick to my game plan, to play a little more liberated, which I I managed to do and I’m very happy with my performance,” added Jannik Sinner, who will face American Tommy Paul in the semi-finals.
The latter indeed dismissed the world No.1 Carlos Alcaraz in three sets (6-3, 4-6, 6-3), while the Russian No.3 Daniil Medvedev bit the dust against the Australian Alex De Minaur in two long sets (7-6 (9/7), 7-5). The elimination of Alcaraz by Paul, who had already beaten him in Canada a year ago, ends a streak of 14 victories for the Spaniard, defending champion of Wimbledon and the US Open. Alcaraz, 20, had already come close to elimination in the round of 16 against Hubert Hurkacz, surviving only by winning the last two sets in the tie-break. With the same erratic tennis, Alcaraz suffered their fifth defeat in 54 matches this season, during which they won six trophies.
Alcaraz relived last year’s nightmare against Tommy Paul. The American had beaten him in his first Canadian tournament in 2022, a few weeks before Alcaraz opened his Grand Slam record at the US Open. Facing an uncomfortable opponent, who is ahead of him by 2-1 in his personal record, Alcaraz started the match with one of his worst sets of the year. The Wimbledon champion gave up his serve in the first game and got angry with himself by accumulating four double faults and seven unforced errors in the first set. “It’s unbelievable, it’s unbelievable, how can you play such bad tennis,” Alcaraz railed several times in his chair after dropping his racquet on the ground.
In the second set, the Spaniard appeared to come back into play when, at 2-3, he hit a massive backhand smash, prompting cheers from the stands. A stroke of genius that earned Alcaraz one of his rare smiles of the evening. But hope was short-lived against an inflexible Paul, who found the decisive break in game six of the final set. After this defeat, Alcaraz will participate next week in the Cincinnati Masters 1000 before defending his title at the US Open, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year.
The other semi-final will pit Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich, who won (6-4, 6-2), against American Mackenzie McDonald, against De Minaur, winner of Medvedev in just over two hours. . It will also be the 27-year-old Australian’s first appearance in a Masters 1000 semi-final.
