Monfils earns clinical win in Shanghai opener

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/gael-monfils/mc65/overview'Gael Monfils/a delivered a vintage performance to kickstart his 2024 campaign at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/shanghai/5014/overview'Rolex Shanghai Masters/a on Wednesday./p

pThe 38-year-oldrsquo;s explosive game was on full display as he overpowered Bosnian a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/damir-dzumhur/d923/overview'Damir Dzumhur/a 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the second round. Monfils crushed 22 winners, according to Infosys ATP Stats, to extend their Lexus ATP Head2Head series lead against Dzumhur to 3-0./p

blockquote class="twitter-tweet"

p lang="en" dir="ltr"Putting on a show ????a href="https://twitter.com/Gael_Monfils?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@Gael_Monfils/a moves through to Round 2 in Shanghai.a href="https://twitter.com/SH_RolexMasters?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@SH_RolexMasters/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RolexShanghaiMasters?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#RolexShanghaiMasters/a a href="https://t.co/x4zfnueVBL"pic.twitter.com/x4zfnueVBL/a/p

mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1841387951361765615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"October 2, 2024/a/blockquote

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pldquo;It was not easy, Damir is a really fast player,rdquo; Monfils said after his one-hour and 21-minute victory. ldquo;It was a little bit slower with these conditions, so it helped him stay in the points. I couldnrsquo;t really power him off the court, but it also helped me sometimes. So, at the end of the day, I tried to focus on my game and use my serve and forehand as much as I can.rdquo;/p

pMonfils, the No. 46 in the PIF ATP Rankings, is making his seventh appearance in Shanghai, where his most memorable run came in 2013 after he downed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roger-federer/f324/overview'Roger Federer/a en route to the quarter-finals. He will face a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/sebastian-baez/b0bi/overview'Sebastian Baez/a in the second round this year at the ATP Masters 1000 event./p

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pEarlier, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-cazaux/c0h0/overview'Arthur Cazaux/a proved too good for a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/marin-cilic/c977/overview'Marin Cilic/a as the 22-year-old outlasted the Croatian with some calculated shotmaking to advance. Cazaux clinched a 6-4, 6-4 victory in one hour and 36 minutes./p

pCazaux, who set up a second-round clash with Tokyo finalist a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ugo-humbert/hh26/overview'Ugo Humbert/a, was one of four French winners on day one in Shanghai./p

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/arthur-rinderknech/rc91/overview'Arthur Rinderknech/a overcame a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/reilly-opelka/o522/overview'Reilly Opelka/a, 6-4, 7-6(5) in a battle of two of the biggest servers on the ATP Tour, before a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexandre-muller/mp20/overview'Alexandre Muller/a put on the afterburners to finish with a flourish against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/luca-nardi/n0bg/overview'Luca Nardi/a. Muller rallied to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 win over the Italian.nbsp;/p

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/botic-van-de-zandschulp/v812/overview'Botic van de Zandschulp/a also got his campaign underway with a sturdy 7-6(5), 6-2 win over a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pablo-carreno-busta/cd85/overview'Pablo Carreno Busta/a. The Dutchman was clinical on serve, winning 77 per cent of first-serve points and saving the sole break point he faced in the match./p

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