Monfils Soars Past Sousa At Rogers Cup
Monfils Soars Past Sousa At Rogers Cup
Lu also advances on Tuesday
Gael Monfils opened up his Rogers Cup campaign in style on Tuesday, scoring a convincing opening-round win over Joao Sousa, 6-3, 6-3.
“I think I’ve put in good work with my team. What I try to do is keep working with them and then see the results later,” said Monfils. “I like to think when I’m in my top game and with consistency, I can beat a lot of players at the top.”
Monfils won 50 per cent of his return points (compared to 38 per cent for Sousa) and fired eight aces. The Frenchman is on a six-match win streak after prevailing last week at the Citi Open.
Next up for Monfils is the winner of the match between Vasek Pospisil and Jeremy Chardy. Monfils leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry with Pospisil by 2-0 and with Chardy by 2-1, but Chardy won their most recent match last month in the opening round at Wimbledon.
Yen-Hsun Lu continued his outstanding 2016 with a first-round win over #NextGen star Alexander Zverev on Tuesday at the Rogers Cup, 7-5, 6-2.
Zverev went up a break in the opening set to lead 4-3, but Lu responded by breaking his opponent in the next game and then again at 6-5 to grab a one-set lead.
After being sidelined for six months due to elbow surgery, Lu returned to action in May and produced outstanding results on the ATP Challenger Tour. He won two-grass court titles (Ilkley, Surbiton) and finished as runner-up in two other events (Manchester, Seoul), all in less than two months.
Next up for Lu is fourth seed and home favourite Milos Raonic. The Canadian leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry 2-0, but the haven’t played in over two years.
“If a 10,000 [person] crowd is against you, even if you prepare for it, it’s still a shock,” said Lu about his upcoming match against Raonic. “I will be a little bit nervous, but I respect him. I’m happy for him. I hope I can play my best tennis and try to enjoy the 10,000 people against me!”
John Millman moved into the second-round after Jared Donaldson was forced to stop play during their match on Tuesday at the Rogers Cup, 6-4, 4-3, retired. Millman has climbed 25 spots this year in the Emirates ATP Rankings to his current standing of No. 67.
Next up for him is the winner of the match between No. 15 seed Steve Johnson and Fabio Fognini. The Aussie has never played Fognini, but Johnson leads their FedEx ATPHead2Head rivalry 3-0, with all three wins coming in 2016.
