Juan Monaco topples Jeremy Chardy to reach the last four – German Tennis Championships 2012
Third seed, Juan Monaco of Argentina, moved to his fifth tour level semi-final of the year by ousting France’s 52nd ranked player, Jeremy Chardy, in the quarter-finals of the Bet-at-home Open German Tennis Championships
in Hamburg on Friday. The Argentinean player took one hour and 36 minutes to undo Chardy.
Monaco hit a blow to the Frenchman in the opening game but he was unable to consolidate on it, equalising the proceedings at 1-1. The Argentinean did not get de-motivated after that, rather, he broke Chardy again in the third one
and this time he held his following serve to gain a 3-1 lead. Serving to survive in the set at 3-5, Chardy lost opening three points to trail 0-40, failing to comeback and dropping it 3-6.
The Argentinean neither hit an ace nor committed a double fault, banging in 80 percent of the first serves and clinching 11 of the 16 points on them. The right-hander executed his second deliveries and returns brilliantly, pocketing
three of the four and 11 of the 15 points on them respectively. The Buenos Aires, Argentina resident could not save the only break point he faced but succeeded in converting three of the five he received in the opener.
Monaco made a solid start in the second set, nailing a break in the second game and capturing his next serve to build a 3-0 lead. However, Chardy was in no mood to go down without putting up a fight, striking back to square off
the score at 4-4. The following three games went with the serve, taking it to 6-5 in favour of Monaco. The Argentinean hit the decisive blow in the 12th one, closing it 7-5.
The 28-year-old put in 74 percent of the first serves and converted 19 of the 26 of them into points.
Giving an interview after the match, Monaco stated, "I'm really happy with the way I played today; I think it was my best match of the tournament. I'm very happy with the way I've played on clay so far this year."
Later in the day, Chardy joined forces with his countryman, Gilles Simon, for the doubles contest, stunning the top seeded Indian tandem of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna to reach the last four.
Monaco is slated to meet the number one seed, Nicolas Almagro of Spain, in the semis. Almagro prevailed over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-5, 7-5 in the quarter-finals.
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