When Gael Monfils is healthy, this is a matchup worthy of a Grand Slam quarterfinal.
This time around, however, you’ll have to get your popcorn ready for a mouth-watering semifinal showdown at the Heineken Open on Friday afternoon. That’s when Monfils and David Ferrer will be squaring off for the fourth time in their careers.
Somewhat surprisingly, Monfils is sweeping the head-to-head series 3-0, including 1-0 on hard courts. Their last two encounters have gone to five sets; Monfils prevailed 7-6(3), 6-2, 4-6, 5-7, 6-4 in a 2010 Davis Cup clash in France and again 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, 1-6, 8-6 at the 2011 French Open.
It would take a considerable upset for the Frenchman to earn a fourth consecutive scalp of his opponent. He is really just now making it back from a knee injury that shelved him for five months starting last spring. So far in Sydney, Monfils has taken out Benjamin Becker, Greg Jones, and Tommy Haas–losing sets to both Becker and Haas.
Ferrer doesn’t seem to be quite as on fire as he was in the fall of 2012, but is still looking like a legit contender to reach the Australian Open semifinals. The fifth-ranked Spaniard lost to Nikolay Davydenko in the Doha semis last week and he almost fell to Yen-Hsun Lu in the Auckland quarters on Wednesday. Nonetheless, Ferrer steadied himself to get past Lu in three then completely destroyed Lukas Lacko on Thursday.
Ferrer talks about Auckland:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQippFmYbvw]
The top seed and two-time defending champion dusted off Lacko in 54 minutes, whereas Monfils needed two hours to subdue Haas. Monfils admitted afterward that he is short on fuel, and part of that is due to a lack of match play. For a player who relies on his speed, this is not a good recipe heading into a clash against a dogged opponent like David Ferrer.
Pick: Ferrer 7-5, 6-2
[polldaddy poll=6820659]
Leave a Reply