Gaël Monfils turns back clock with Stefanos Tsitsipas stunner in Toronto

WATCH: Monfils began his Toronto campaign with an encouraging win over an in-form Christopher Eubanks earlier this week.

Gnite, Skaï, Good morning, Gaël.

Gaël Monfils continues to write new verses in his odyssey of a tennis career, and looks primed for another proverbial climb up the mountain with an emphatic 6-4, 6-3 victory over No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas at the National Bank Open.

"I was very happy with the way I was moving on the court again," Monfils said after the match. "For me, it's always key to have great movement. So I was happy with that."

He dedicated the win to his daughter, signing her name on the camera lens in Toronto.

Ranked No. 276 in the world, Monfils shut down his season in Canada when he incurred a foot injury against Jack Draper. The 36-year-old returned to action in March and though he enjoyed a sentimental victory at Roland Garros, he spent much of the last six weeks supporting his resurgent wife Elina Svitolina, who edged into the semifinals of Wimbledon with a win over world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

His own comeback finally picked up steam this summer with a round-of-16 finish at the Mubadala Citi DC Open and now this 84-minute victory over Tsitsipas—his first Top 5 victory in nearly 18 months.

"I still believe I can be tough for those guys out there," he said in his post-match press conference.

Monfils carried his DC momentum up north when he knocked out Wimbledon quarterfinalist Christopher Eubanks, but Tsitsipas was meant to be a different challenge entirely: the two-time Grand Slam finalist led their head-to-head 2-1 and had returned to his career-high ranking of No. 3 earlier this season.

But Monfils was undaunted and played through their Wednesday encounter without dropping serve, scoring the lone break of the opening set in a crucial fifth game and opened the second set in similar fashion, striking 19 winners to Tsitsipas’ 14.

Down a set and a break, the 24-year-old Tsitsipas looked to force Monfils to at least serve out the match, but sloppy play from 40-15 up put the French favorite in position to nab a final break for the upset, an opportunity he converted on the second time of asking.

"I'm just happy that, you know, I made it through those weeks, more or less, let's say, with a little bit of body soreness and everything. But I really want to keep pushing my body and my mind for this week, and, obviously, for the next week coming up, because I won't lie. What is tough for me is play weeks after weeks after weeks. And so far it's okay. But I really hope I can keep doing that for couple more weeks."

The win puts Monfils into the third round of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time in exactly 12 months, and he will await the winner of American Sebastian Korda and lucky loser Aleksandar Vukic.