US Open 2019: 5 best men's matches from this year's tournament

#3 Third Round: Gael Monfils beats Denis Shapovalov 6-7(5) 7-6(4) 6-4 6-7(6) 6-3

Gaël Monfils

Frenchman Gaël Monfils met young Canadian Denis Shapovalov in another late-night thriller at Flushing Meadows.

Both men were no strangers to this stage of the US Open, with Monfils playing his seventh (5-1) and Shapovalov his third (1-1) third-round match.

In the pair's first meeting on tour, Shapovalov edged a tight first set on a tiebreak 7-6(5) and served for a two-set lead at 5-4. But Monfils interspersed blistering winners with off-pace shots to break back and level the match on a tiebreak.

The Frenchman rode on a single break in the third to take a two sets to one lead. Shapovalov looked down and out when he went down a double break to trail 1-4 in the fourth. But urged on by his new coach Mikhail Youzhny, the young Canadian threw caution to the wind and recouped one of the breaks back.

When Monfils failed to serve out the match at 5-4, Shapovalov's comeback was well and truly on. In the ensuing tiebreak, the Canadian took a 5-2 lead, only for Monfils to earn a match point by taking four points in a row.

With the match on the line, Shapovalov refused to back down, as a high-risk huge forehand brought high reward by erasing the match point. A point later, Monfils double-faulted to send the match to a fifth.

Denis Shapovalov

However, Monfils displayed incredible mental toughness and resilience by breaking Shapovalov for a 2-1 lead in the decider. A second match point would come and go but the Frenchman made good on his third opportunity to close out a hard-fought 6-7 7-6 6-4 6-7 6-3 win to move into his sixth fourth-round match in New York.

For the second straight year in a third-round match at Flushing Meadows (lost to Anderson in 2018), Shapovalov wondered what might have been as he went the distance only to come up short.