Monfils, the favorite, moves on
First-seeded Gaël Monfils is ready for the semifinal of the If Stockholm Open. Today he defeated the fifth-seeded South African, Kevin Anderson 7-5, 7-5. Milos Raonic awaits Monfils in the semifinal.
In yesterday’s match against Bernard Tomic, Gaël Monfils was in big trouble. Although tonight’s match against Kevin Anderson was back-and-forth, the 10th ranked player in the world managed to move on. Anderson had the set point in Monfil’s serve when the score was 5-4 in the first set, but the Frenchman was able to sort out the situation and win his service game. Then, Monfils won seven games in a row and made the score 4-0 in the second set.
Monfils quickly moved to 5-1. At 5-2, he had a chance to serve for the win, but Anderson took advantage of a break opportunity and reduced the gap 3-5, 4-5 and eventually evened the score to 5-5 before Monfils won the set 7-5.
“He started playing really well. Maybe I lost my concentration a bit, too. But it’s nice to have had a couple of games on this kind of court,” said Monfils after the game. Milos Raonic, who beat Grigor Dimitrov in his quarterfinal match today, awaits Monfils in the semifinal.
“It was a tough match. He has about the same playing style as Anderson, with a very good serve. I am going to focus on the returns and try to get him to move around the court,” said Monfils.
The second semifinal game is between James Blake and Jarkko Nieminen.