Gael Monfils sails past Jarkko Nieminen to reach the semis – Open Sud de France 2012
Home favourite, Gael Monfils, stomped over the eighth seeded Finn, Jarkko Nieminen, in under an hour at the Open Sud de France 2012 on Friday. He formulated a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the 30-year-old to book a spot in the final four at this ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 series event held in Montpellier, France.
Third seeded French pleased the home crowd after earning a straight set victory against the Finn, ranked 50th in the South African Airways ATP World Rankings, in their third meeting. After bagging this match, he not only improved to a 3-0 FedEx
ATP Head2Head record against Nieminen but also inched closer to lift his fifth ATP career title.
World number 13, Monfils, showed his real colours in the start of the match at the Arena Montpellier. He drew the first blood in the third game and eventually went 3-1 up. The French then maintained his intensity and capitalised on another break chance in
the last game to clinch the opener with a 6-3 win.
The French number three carried his rhythm into the following set and smoothly slid in entire serves without facing any breakpoint. He got the breakthrough in the fourth game and earned the glory by winning six games to three.
Overall, Monfils outplayed the Finn in every department of tennis. He struck nine aces, formulated a better first serve share of 69 percent as opposed to Nieminen’s 49 percent and brilliantly registered 27 out of 29 points on it. He was never threatened
throughout the match converted three out of five break opportunities to his advantage.
Next up for the 25-year-old is his second seeded compatriot, Gilles Simon, who battled past the wild card enterer, Guillaume Rufin, in brutal three sets to secure this spot.
In another match the top seed, Tomas Berdych, earned the limelight and joined Monfils in the last four. He outclassed the local challenger, Nicolas Mahut, in straight sets for the third time in a row.
"So far everything’s going pretty well," said Berdych. "I have a second match under my belt. The very important thing in my game is serve. It was working pretty well, [except] for one game where I lost maybe a bit of concentration and lost that game, but
finally was able to finish it in straight sets, so happy for that."
The Czech number one will next confront the German seventh seed, Philipp Kohlschreiber, who stunned a local star, Richard Gasquet, to set-up this clash.
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