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: 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: Mahut in 3
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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.