Monfils makes progress

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 13:04

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.

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