Gael Monfils has suddenly become the title favorite in Rotterdam, but he will have to get past Philipp Kohlschreiber on Saturday in order to reach the championship match. An even more surprising semifinal pits Martin Klizan against Nicolas Mahut.
(5) Gael Monfils vs. Philipp Kohlschreiber
Monfils and Kohlschreiber will be facing each other for the 14th time in their careers when they battle for a spot in the title match of the of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament on Saturday. It would not be an overstatement to say that the head-to-head history has been a disaster for Kohlschreiber. He was won only two of their 13 previous meetings, and Monfils is 6-0 in the series on hard courts (including 5-0 indoors). The two veterans most recently squared off twice last summer, with the Frenchman getting the job done in three sets on both grass (Stuttgart) and clay (Umag).
A recent first-round Montpellier loss to Edouard Roger-Vasselin looks like nothing more than a mere hiccup for Monfils. That result was preceded by a quarterfinal performance at the Australian Open and it has now been followed by victories this week over Ernests Gulbis, Borna Coric, and Alexander Zverev. After a slow start that was due in part to bad draws in both Auckland and Melbourne, Kohlschreiber is heating up nicely. The 32nd-ranked German reached the quarters last week in Sofia and so far in Rotterdam he has taken out Julien Benneteau, Ivan Dodig, and Marin Cilic. Monfils’ mental state has once again been all over the place this week, so he likely find a way to make this more interesting than it should be. But the fifth seed’s dominance of Kohlschreiber is likely to continue.
Pick:Â Monfils in 3
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(Q) Nicolas Mahut vs. Martin Klizan
It has already been an absolutely outstanding week for both Klizan and Mahut heading into an unexpected semifinal showdown on Saturday. Mahut had to win a pair of qualifying matches just to get into the main draw and his final-round contest against fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille required a pair of tiebreakers. With momentum in hand, the 34-year-old has since defeated Teymuraz Gabashvili, Jeremy Chardy, and Viktor Troicki without dropping a set.
Klizan is enjoying second life after improbably fighting off five match points in a 6-7(5), 7-6(6), 6-0 victory over a red-hot Roberto Bautista Agut on Friday. The 43rd-ranked Slovak, who was also a semifinalist last week in Sofia, preceded the upset of Bautista Agut by beating Tommy Robredo and Marcos Baghdatis. Klizan lost his only previous encounter with Mahut 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3 at the 2012 French Open. Completely on fire in Rotterdam, Mahut has dropped serve only once in five matches. As such, his run should continue into the final.
Pick:Â Mahut in 3
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who ya got?
Tsame. Monfils and Mahut in 3. Both matches could go either way, tho. Klizan looks very eager and hungry.
Allez Gael!
I am going with Monfils in 3 sets over Kohls.
I can absolutely see either Mahut or Klizan winning.
Mahut and la Monf in two. Gael has Kohl’s number and Mahut is playing super well right now and hasn’t dropped a set this week.
Klizan is a mental midget.
Lucky for him, Mahut is also a mental midget.
Sadly Mahut cant let go of the incident when Klizan flung his racquet in the air and by chance it knocked his racquet out of his hand during the second set. As a result his concentration wavered and Klizan poounced. He is now down a break in the 3rd and Klizan has the momentum. Deja vu of the RBA match.
I’m so sad Mahut is down now. My little brother was watching it while I was playing a match and he told me after that Klizan saved a bunch of match points and was down 3-5 in the second set. So sad because Mahut would’ve hit career high ranking at 34 years old. ?? Klizan is a boss though. C’mon Mahut fight back!! ????
Doubt he’ll ever get another chance like that to be in the final of a 500 tournament. After the fracas his game fell apart. Up to that point I had been admiring how cool, calm and collected he was and he had barely put a foot wrong. But Klizan sowed the seeds of doubt in his mind by saving multiple match points and Mah;ut got tight and his level dropped under the scoreboard pressure.
he had a huge doubles win right after
Good he salvaged something from today. A second loss would have been unbearablly painful..
Pizza MaHut.
Vamos klizan rules
Some ‘haji-bagi’ going on. The man from the ATP was called. Mahut has allowed it to distract him and looks like losing the 3rd set.
Mahut is still rightfully cheesed off about Klizan hitting a shot at Mahut’s racquet and knocking the racquet out of Nico’s hand after a winning the point. Incident happened in the 2nd set TB.
Mahut was winning the match before Klizan did that plus started clowning. Mahut has lost his concentration. Klizan going for broke. Mahut should call for a comfort break and come out dressed in drag (like it’s Hopman Cup). Shame if Klizan wins after all that.
Mahut wanted Klizan to be defaulted.
Too much inconsistency in applying the ATP code of conduct. On another occasion Klizan would have been defaulted.
It was irresponsible but he didn’t actually aim the racquet at Mahut and the umpire didn’t see what happened.
Bit of a grey area.
No
to nadline
He was jusifiably angered at the way it was handled but has ended up coming across as petulant. He should be mature enough to rise above it.
#KlizanBlitz
Pizza Mahut may be right but he’s wrong to let it get the better of him and klizan is rightfully milking it for all it’s worth.
That too.
Klizan went right at him.
Double break
As for calling the ATP Rep., complete waste of time. They always go along with whatever decision the umpire has taken.
Mahut lost.
I’m just here for the hand shake.
Sadly Mahut has nobody but himself too blame. He should have been able to rise above the whole sorry affair. However I hope Klizan has a guilty conscience. He must know he would have been defaulted had the umpire been watching at the moment the racquet was flung across the net. Didn’t help when from then on he was playing to the gallery which go up Mahut’s nose big time.
Mahut cut his nose to spite his face, as they say.