MONTREAL: Experienced French player Gael Monfils opened his last ATP Montreal Masters campaign with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak on Monday.

Monfils, playing his final season on the ATP Tour, energised the rain-weary late-night crowd, winning four straight games to take a 5-2 lead in the second set.

He was broken in his first attempt to serve out the match but made no mistake on his second, advancing to a second-round meeting with 12th-seeded Learner Tien.

“I felt like I played well,” Monfils said. “I was serving really good, tried to be very accurate with my first serve and then second serve tried to be super aggressive and then use my forehand. I felt more and more I could hold his pace.”

Monfils, coming off a first-round exit at Roland Garros, needed one hour and 38 minutes to dispatch Majchrzak, who won his first ATP title at s-Hertogenbosch in June.

Italy’s former top 10 contender Matteo Berrettini, coming back from an abdominal injury, played his first match since Wimbledon and lost 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 to Argentine Mariano Navone.

The 12-day event is missing world number one Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic.

Roland Garros champion and Wimbledon finalist Alexander Zverev is the top seed ahead of Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.

PLISKOVA ADVANCES

Meanwhile, former world number one Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic beat Ukraine’s Oleksandra Oliynykova 6-4, 6-4 in the WTA Toronto Open.

Hungary’s Panna Uvardy was up 2-6, 7-6 (7/3), 2-0 against Eva Lys when the German retired because of injury in a match in which she led the second set 5-2.

Among the winners, Poland’s Magdalena Frech defeated France’s Leolia Jeanjean 7-5, 6-3 to line up a meeting with third-seeded two-time champion Jessica Pegula.

Pegula beat Frech last week on the way to the final in Washington, where the American fell to Eala in the rain-delayed title match on Monday.

In other early matches, American Kayla Day beat Diane Parry of France 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 to book a clash with fourth-seeded Coco Gauff.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2026