Frenchman Gael Monfils outlasted American upstart Christopher Eubanks 7-6 (3), 6-7 (4), 6-1 in the first round of the National Bank Open on Monday in Toronto.
Monfils finished with a 14-6 edge in aces and won 45 of his 55 first-service points (81.8 percent) to beat Eubanks in two hours and 26 minutes.
Eubanks saved 14 of 18 break points to stay afloat in the match. He’s risen to No. 29 in the ATP rankings after making a surprise run to the Wimbledon quarterfinals last month.
“It’s always good to beat top players. I am very happy,” Monfils said. “I served for the match and had a couple of match points, so I had to refocus on the simple stuff, use my quick feet and be more aggressive as I had been tense and let him dictate too much. I was happy with my speed on the court and felt my coverage was a key today.”
Polish No. 15 seed Hubert Hurkacz, who made the finals of Canada’s national open last year, beat Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 6-3, 7-6 (2) on Monday. Bublik had 10 aces but also committed 10 double faults. No. 16 seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy defeated Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-1.
Japanese qualifier Taro Daniel beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (5), 6-4, while Australian qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis took down China’s Zhizhen Zhang 7-5, 6-4.
Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic outlasted Brandon Nakashima 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (2) in two hours and 47 minutes. It was a rematch of the championship match that Nakashima won at last year’s Next Gen ATP Finals in Italy.
Other winners included Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo, Italy’s Matteo Berrettini and Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
Rain in Toronto on Monday morning delayed the start of the tournament until just after noon. Among the four late matches still in progress included ninth seed Frances Tiafoe against Canada’s Milos Raonic and 12th seed Tommy Paul against Argentine qualifier Diego Schwartzman.
–Field Level Media