WHAT HAPPENED: Gael Monfils, the No. 13 seed, played a brilliant all-court game to outlast a late surge by Denis Shapovalov, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-3, in Louis Armstrong Stadium. Shapovalov served for a two-sets-to-love lead before Monfils raised his game, seized the momentum and kept the pressure on his opponent to edge him out in a nail-biting display of explosive offense.
The night session in Louis Armstrong Stadium was abbreviated on paper after the women’s match was cancelled when Anett Kontaveit withdrew with a viral illness. Monfils and Shapovalov made up for it with a battle that lived up to its promise, pitting two natural showmen against each other—Monfils, a fan-favorite veteran having a great year, and Shapovalov, a worth-the-hype 20-year-old coming off two dominant wins.
The two traded breaks in the first set before Shapovalov wrested it away in a tiebreak. The Canadian, who is still alive in the doubles draw (with Rohan Bopanna), charged the net 20 times in the set and won 15 of those points. Throughout the second, he kept playing smarter than he has this summer as his ranking slipped from his career-high of 20 in April to No. 33—far enough to put him out of seeding range in Flushing Meadows. He was patient before unleashing his bread-and-butter finishing shot, the down-the-line forehand, and came in on the right balls. He served for a two-set lead at 5-4 in the second.
That's when Monfils, whose ranking has climbed from 33 to 15 this year behind the best start of his career (15-3 with one title), turned it up like the veteran he is. Having just brought the crowd to its feet with a leaping overhead, he won eight of the next nine points to get back on serve. In the tiebreak, Shapovalov made a rare poor approach and netted a volley from his shoelaces.
Shapovalov struggled to hold serve in the third, facing pressure in his first three service games. He fought off eight break points—all with winners—before succumbing on the ninth, when he curiously took his forehand crosscourt instead of down the line, and missed. “My legs died down after the second set,” he said after the match. “I had to change my tactics a bit, and that’s where I got a little lost. I couldn’t take the ball as early, so I didn’t know whether to rally or hit through.” Monfils didn’t lose a point on first serve and fired two of his five aces for the set to take the lead.
Trailing 1-4 in the fourth set, Shapovalov found his legs enough to keep coming in (the Canadian made 65 net approaches in the match) and unleash forehand winners, forcing a string of errors from Monfils to close out the set in an extended tietbreak. Monfils was the steadier player down the stretch, though. Shapovalov double-faulted in this second service game of the fifth set to fall behind early. He eventually saved two match points, but ran out of gas against a more consistent, more experienced opponent after three-and-a-half hours.
WHAT IT MEANS: Monfils is into the fourth round for the sixth time and will be a heavy favorite against unseeded Pablo Andujar, who is ranked 70 and has never been past the second round at the US Open until this year. The 32-year-old leads the head-to-head, 3-0. He is the highest seed left in the quarter of the draw vacated by the upsets of No. 6 seed Dominic Thiem and No. 9 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Shapovalov was looking on the bright side shortly after the match when he met with the press. Although he readily admitted that “it sucks” to lose in five sets after scraping his way back into the match in the fourth, he said he has rediscovered his passion on the court and is looking forward to the rest of the year.
MATCH POINT: Monfils was the lone Frenchman remaining in Round 3, the fewest since 2003.
