Monfils exhibited his renowned athleticism in high-quality quarter-finals, putting his faith on his lightning-fast court coverage to grab the semi-finals spot after outlasting Raonic in 6-4, 6-4 victory.
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Serbia’s Djokovic made 33 unforced errors but still progressed with a 7-6 (8-6) 6-4 win over Czech Tomas Berdych.
Japanese third seed Kei Nishikori beat American qualifier Dennis Novikov 6-4 7-5, ninth seed John Isner fell 7-6(3) 6-7(4) 6-4 to American Ryan Harrison and Canadian fourth seed Raonic beat Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-3 6-3.
The second set was more competitive, with Anderson making only 53 percent of his first serves but getting broken just once and creating two break-point chances against Wawrinka, who saved both of them.
KERBER, HALEP IN SEMIS German No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber and Romanian No. 5 seed Simona Halep advanced to the semi- finals of the Rogers Cup in Montreal with victories over Russians Daria Kasatkina and Svetlana Kuznetsova, respectively. “Overall performance was very pleasing considering it was the first hard court match for a long time”.
“It was a really good match”, Wawrinka was quoted as saying on the ATP World Tour’s Web site.
Monfils, the 10th seed, defeated fourth seed Raonic 6-4 6-4 in an hour and 12 minutes at the Aviva Centre.
Kevin Anderson of South Africa returns the ball against Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland during their quarterfinal match of men’s singles at the 2016 Rogers Cup in Toronto, Canada, July 29, 2016.
Novak Djokovic conceded he needed some luck to earn a place in the semi-finals of the Rogers Cup, following a 7-6, 6-4 victory over Tomas Berdych.
“He’s playing great tennis at the moment”, said Djokovic, 11-0 against Monfils. “I’m quite pleased with the way I held my serves and was focused”, said Djokovic following the match.
“I played good, I’m strong, full of confidence”, said Monfils, the 10 seed.
“I was very fortunate to get the first set”, Djokovic said in a televised on-court interview. It showed me that I was ready, aggressive, (and)moving really well. “Mixing a lot. I was reading the game well, good in defence and found a way to come back and attack”.
“In the past, I’ve never really played great here”. The final upset of the day was No. 13 Lucas Pouille of France falling to American Rajeev Ram in straight sets.
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The semifinals start at 3 pm ET on Saturday with Nishikori and Wawrinka the first to play. He went out in an opening match a year ago to Nick Kyrgios and got to the third round in 2014.
