Top seed Gael Monfils of France continued his relentless march toward the South African Open title with a straight-sets quarter-final triumph over Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun on Friday.
The world No. 13 gave his best performance so far in the ATP tournament at Montecasino Entertainment Centre and needed only 54 minutes to complete a 6-1, 6-4 win over a brave, but often outclassed Lu.
Monfils will face third seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the semi-finals, while second seed David Ferrer meets Stephane Robert in another Franco-Spanish showdown.
“Perfect,” was the verdict of crowd favorite Monfils on his display after he claimed a third consecutive straight-sets victory in an event won last year by fellow Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The 23-year-old Paris-born son of Caribbean parents, who loves soccer and supports Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain, took just 23 minutes to win the first set after twice breaking Lu’s service.
Nicknamed Randy because his American high school teachers could not pronounce his full name, Lu improved dramatically to win his first two service games in the second set and lead 2-1, before threatening to break Monfils. After building a 40-15 advantage, however, the Taiwanese ranked 96 in the world squandered his big chance with two unforced errors and lost the game by over-hitting a deep return.
Monfils then broke service to take a 3-2 lead when he could easily have been trailing 4-1 and the next five games were won by the server to put Monfils in the semis.
Ferrer reached the semi-finals for the second consecutive year with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over young Indian Somdev Devvarman and will hope for better luck than last year when he suffered a shock loss to Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
Lopez won 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 against Rajeev Ram of the US and Robert eliminated Jamaican giant Dustin Brown 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 in another tight contest to secure a place beside the top three seeds.
■MOVISTAR OPEN
AP, SANTIAGO
Top-seeded Fernando Gonzalez barely kept alive his hopes of a fifth hometown Movistar Open title when he scraped past unseeded Marcel Granollers of Spain 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (11/9) in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Gonzalez could never get on a roll against Granollers, who matched the Chilean star break for break in a match which lasted 2 hours, 17 minutes.
Gonzalez will play third-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, who outserved Eduardo Schwank of Argentina 6-4, 6-4.
Argentina’s Juan Monaco overcame Peter Luczak of Australia 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to be only a win away from making the Movistar Open final for the second time in three years.
Monaco will play Brazilian qualifier Joao Souza, who has advanced to the last four in his debut on the main ATP Tour.
Souza ousted three-time Tour winner Alberto Martin of Spain 6-2, 6-4 for his sixth win in seven days, including in qualifying.
■ZAGREB INDOORS
REUTERS, ZAGREB
Top seed Marin Cilic of Croatia battled to a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 win over compatriot Ivo Karlovic to stay on course for his second consecutive Zagreb Indoors title.
Cilic now faces Austrian third seed Juergen Melzer, who got past Ukrainian Illya Marchenko 3-6, 6-0, 7-5.
Germany’s Michael Berrer reached the last four of an ATP Tour event for the first time since October 2007 after upsetting fourth seed Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-3 in 84 minutes.
World No. 65 Berrer faces countryman Philipp Petzschner, who beat Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-7 (1/7), 6-2, 6-2.
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