Frenchman Gael Monfils beat Canadian Milos Raonic in straight sets on Friday to set up a Rogers Cup semi-final with world number one Novak Djokovic.
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Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, acknowledges the crowd after defeating Gael Monfils, of France, 6-3, 6-2 during a semifinal at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament, Saturday, Jully 30, 2016, in Toronto.
Nishikori won in Memphis in February for his 11th ATP Tour title. I lost two years ago when I played him here. On a more positive note for Berdych, his last victory against Novak Djokovic came just three years ago, although the world number one now holds a 12-match streak after suffering that 2013 defeat. The Serbian tennis player admitted he was lucky to advance after saving seven of eight break points.
And I think on a quick court like Toronto that edge goes to Novak who also has the better return game.
Croatia’s Ivan Dodig and Brazil’s Marcelo Melo will face Great Britain’s Jamie Murray and Brazil’s Bruno Soares in the doubles final Sunday afternoon.
“It’s tough playing the first hard-court match since March”, said Djokovic.
Djokovic played much better after getting broken, it’s too bad Monfils had no dog to put in this fight and the Serb cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win and up his flawless mark against Monfils to 12-0. “I guess I was just able to focus on the next point”.
“I love to play when it’s crowded, and if the crowd is for the other one, it’s fine”, Monfils said.
In Friday’s quarter-final, Wawrinka brushed aside Anderson 6-1, 6-3, taking advantage of the South African’s poor serving to cruise to victory in one hour and 13 minutes.
Berdych beat Ryan Harrison of the USA 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, while second seed Stan Wawrinka defeated another American, Jack Sock, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2.
In the first set, Anderson put just 48 percent of his first serves in play, which proved costly as he won only 23 percent of his second-serve points and was broken three times.
Having found a foothold in the game, Nishikori took the early lead, breaking Wawrinka’s opening serve and holding his own to go 3-0 up.
Halep seized control for good with an early break in the third to keep alive her hopes of improving on her runner-up finish in Canada last year-when she retired from the final against Belinda Bencic with an illness.
“Bit fortunate I must say”, he said in an on-court interview.
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In a 3-5 hole and staring down two match points, Berdych fought it off, but Djokovic served out the match, making it 17 consecutive losses for the Czech against top-five opponents. It was a play taken out of Tomas Berdych’s playbook from the night before in his meltdown match against Djokovic.
