World number one Novak Djokovic is into another Rogers Cup final after crushing Gael Monfils.
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Novak Djokovic eased into the final of the Rogers Cup with a straight sets victory over Gael Monfils on Saturday night.
The Swiss second seed’s loss of form continued in the second set and Nishikori capitalised to build a convincing 5-0 lead which set him up for victory.
The Serbian admitted he was lucky to advance after saving seven of eight break points.
“Haven’t beat Novak for a long time on hard court”, Nishikori said. “My serve just wasn ” t right today.
“I just tried to concentrate in the tiebreaker”, Nishikori said. “You don’t feel good on the court when you miss that kind of shot”. I must be pleased with the way I hung in there.
The 11-time Grand Slam champion from Serbia had his serve broken in the third game of the opening set but that was as good as it got for Monfils who proceeded to lose 10 of the next 12 games.
“It was a really good match, I started really well the first game”, Wawrinka said. “Actually, it actually makes him more eager to come out and play his best tennis”.
Nishikori is seeking his first ATP Masters 1000 title after reaching the third final of his career in the elite events.
Romania’s Simona Halep rallied for a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova on Friday to set up a semi-final showdown with Angelique Kerber at the WTA Montreal tournament.
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 previous year – when she retired from the final against Belinda Bencic with an illness.
The [7.5] about a 6-2 opening set to Djokovic looks the one for me, with “no tie break” also appealing at [1.53], given they’ve played only one in the last 17 sets against each other on hard courts.
Stan Wawrinka was obviously disappointed: ‘I think I had a lot of chances in the first set.It was a tough match to play Kei today.
Once Halep shook off some early nerves, she was able to pressure the Russian veteran’s serve and was rewarded when Kuznetsova surrendered an early break in the second set with a double fault.
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Djokovic was the big favourite Friday evening against the fifth-seeded Czech, having won 24 of their previous 26 matches, but he squandered a 5-2 first-set lead and almost lost the tie-breaker when he went down 3-6, reports Efe. “There are many things that I can be happy with”.
