Novak Djokovic battles past Gael Monfils in three sets on Friday in Shanghai. Djokovic is joined in the semifinals by Juan Martin Del Potro, a routine winner over Nicolas Almagro.
(1) Novak Djokovic d. Gael Monfils 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4
Monfils delivered one of his best performances of the season, but Djokovic had enough to survive and book a spot in the semifinals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters after two hours and 22 minutes of play on Friday afternoon. A thrilling first set began with four consecutive service breaks, mainly due to outstanding baseline play by both men. Eight straight holds took the opener to a tiebreaker, which Monfils won seven points to four. The Frenchman earned a mini-break for 5-3 before taking care of his service points at 5-4 and 6-4.
Monfils’ incredible level became merely solid in sets two and three, and solid was not good enough against Djokovic on this day. The second-ranked Serb got back on track with breaks in the first and seventh games of the middle frame. Monfils held en route to a 3-2 advantage in the decider before Djokovic again seized the upper hand for 4-3. Shanghai’s top seed and defending champ missed a match point on return at 5-3, but he quickly finished off the proceedings with a love hold. Next up for Djokovic is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a straight-set winner over Florian Mayer.
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(6) Juan Martin Del Potro d. (15) Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 6-3
With an extra day of rest–because of Tommy Haas’ third-round withdrawl–to recover from both a long week in Tokyo and a fever, Del Potro had a much easier day at the office than did Djokovic and Monfils. It was also far more routine than last week’s showdown against Almagro, which Del Potro won in two tiebreakers. The Argentine cruised through this Shanghai quarterfinal encounter in just one hour and 11 minutes. Almagro fired 12 aces without double-faulting, but he was still broken three times and did not earn a single scalp of the Del Potro serve.
The world No. 5 missed three break chances in the first game of the match, but he soon took control with a break for 2-1. While that would have been enough in the opening set, Del Potro added another break at 5-3 for good measure. It was all but over for Almagro, who saw a single break opportunity at 1-0 in the second go by the wayside, when he dropped serve at 3-4. Del Potro served things out one game later to set up a semifinal showdown against Rafael Nadal.
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Djo in 3
oops wrong thread