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Two of tennis’ greatest athletes, Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils, put on quite the show in the second round of the ATP 1000 Rogers Cup in Toronto. In what looked at times like try-outs for the world gymnastics finals, Novak Djokovic just had a little more stretch in him as he won 6-2, 6-7, 7-6.
That Gael Monfils should be part of such a show should be no surprise. The Frenchman has occupied the role of tennis’ jester for years now, sometimes a little sadly as he is, bequeathed with all the talent and athleticism you could wish for, the man who could be king. But that title goes to Novak Djokovic. The current world No.1 started the match as if the only show he intended on getting into was one on the TV, and he was in a hurry to do so. He took the first set 6-2.
Monfils dug in though, using all his shotmaking and retrieving to stay with Djokovic, and got under his skin. In the second set tiebreak he sneaked it out from under Djokovic’s nose before racing into a 3-1 lead in the third.
This was not how the script was supposed to read for Djokovic and the way he had fluffed his lines was written all over him. Rattled, he complained about this and that, the crowd, his opponent’s timewasting, but he did break back rightaway for 2-3, dishing out his full array of length and spins and using all the court, the way he does when pushed out of his cruise control comfort zone.
Now it was Monfils turn to get uppity. The Frenchman had already had words with the umpire about being warned for time, and wanted to have his say, too, about timekeeping in the match on the part of the umpire himself who was struggling with a technological fault. Other gripes mounted, and it looked like Monfils might get distracted, but he served like a God, and covered every inch of the court to hang with Djokovic, and was somewhat helped by the Serbs unusual amount of errors, reaching into the 20s on the backhand as the set moved towards a final set tiebreaker.
Djokovic may have been out of sorts, but what he was not was out of guts. As the set went on, he moved in, and every point seemed about taking control and not playing Monfils at his game of stretching out and getting everything back with laserlike strokes no textbook could teach. Watching Monfils on the run then stretching out his arms and legs and sweeping at the ball, the ball moving across the court with absolute mastery for such a desperate shot, is a sight spectators never bore of. But Djokovic wanted none of it. He came forward, ended the points, and felt good about it, too with many a fistpump and roar.
That confidence served him well in the breaker. He broke immediately, held the break, and separated himself from his opponent as a King would from his jester, as he had done in the first set. Djokovic took the breaker and the match, and his roar to the crowd told how much of a bullet he knew he had dodged while the crowd roared back their appreciation at both the skills with which he had evaded it, and the fine but ultimately flawed marksmanship of the gunman.
While that epic encounter held the front page of the event for day 3, there were plenty of other three set thrillers going on: Gasquet over Karlovic, Berdych over Lu, Raonic over Sock, Dimitrov over Young, Cilic over Jaziri, Ferrer over Russel, Dodig over Seppi. It was as if the lull after Wimbledon had to be made up for somehow.
There were some straight-setters though. Murray had a much easier time over Kyrgios than anyone had a right to expect. Benneteau knocked out Gulbis with the kind of efficient and aggressive tennis we did expect. Lopez beat Smyczek, Anderson beat Fognini, Robredo beat Simon, and Tsonga beat Chardy. They all did it in the shadows of the Djokovic-Monfils match, mind, shadows that might be cast over the event for days to come now Monfils is out, but after his performance against Djokovic he might be out of sight, but it will be a while before he is out of mind.
Commentary by Christian Deverille
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