Vintage Monfils Upsets Medvedev, Who Will Fall From No. 1

Gael Monfils recaptured the form that saw him reach the Australian Open quarter-finals to knock out World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev on Monday in Indian Wells. With the loss, Medvedev will hand back the top spot in the ATP Rankings to Novak Djokovic on Monday.

The 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory puts the Frenchman into the Round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open, where he will face the red-hot Carlos Alcaraz.

After competing just once in February, the 26th seed got his first win since Melbourne against Filip Krajinovic on Saturday. He built on that with a scintillating performance in Stadium 1, his explosive and care-free tennis enthralling the early afternoon crowd in the desert.

After a sloppy end to the first set, Monfils found a new gear for the rest of the two-hour, four-minute match. He used two screaming break-point winners to gain control of the second set, re-establishing his break advantage with a forehand rope that sent the crowd into a frenzy as Monfils basked in the support.

Monfils charged to a 4-0 lead in the final set, twice battling through deuce to break. On his sixth match point, the Frenchman fittingly ended the match in style with a backhand winner.

It’s a second career victory over a current World No. 1 for Monfils, his first coming against Rafael Nadal in 2009 in Doha.