Monfils beats Baez in three sets to advance to third round of Shanghai tournament

French veteran Gaël Monfils, 46th in the world, won Friday in three sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 against 23-year-old Argentinian and 26th in the world Sebastian Baez, in the 2nd round of the Masters 1000 in Shanghai. Monfils, 38, will play in the 3rd round against another French player: the winner of the match between Arthur Cazaux and Ugo Humbert, seeded N.16.

A notch above his young Argentine opponent, more comfortable on clay, Monfils could have spared himself a few precious minutes of play. But in the second set, when he quickly took Baez’s serve and leading 4-2, he relaxed and had to return to the fight in a third set. He then broke from the start to take the lead and conclude on his second match point, forcing Baez to make another mistake, in 2h12. In the first round, Monfils dominated the Bosnian Damir Dzumhur (94th). Last week, he suffered a defeat in the first round at the ATP 500 in Beijing against Daniil Medvedev.