Monfils makes progress
Date published : 05 Feb 2010 - 19:28:02
Top seed Gael Monfils will meet Feliciano Lopez in the first semi-final of the SA Tennis Open in Johannesburg, while David Ferrer set up a last four clash against Stephane Robert at Montecasino.
Frenchman Monfils, the world number 13, had little trouble against the eighth seed Lu Yen-Hsun, who turned in an error-strewn performance on his way to a 6-1 6-4 loss.
The Chinese Taipei player won just one game in the first set - 16 unforced errors not helping his cause - before a much better display in the second set came too late as one break was enough to take the two-time ATP Tour winner to victory.
Monfils will now meet number three Lopez for a place in Sunday's final after the Spaniard beat Rajeev Ram.
The American had several chances to take the game to his opponent, squandering seven break points before falling 7-6 (7/2) 6-3.
In the bottom half of the draw, second seed Ferrer dropped just four games on his way to a crushing 6-1 6-3 win over Somdev Devvarman.
The Spaniard, who also reached the semi-final in the same competition last year, wasted little time against the Indian with his strong first serve carrying him a long way - the world number 18 won 20 out of 25 points to ease home in 66 minutes.
Ferrer will play Robert in the last four after the Frenchman came through a testing 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 win against the feisty Dustin Brown.
Germany-born Brown, who represents Jamaica, had impressed all week following his opening-round win against fourth seed Marco Chiudinelli and again threatened to cause another upset.
But after taking his opponent to a tie-break he narrowly lost out, before throwing away six break point opportunities in the second set to hand Robert victory.
