Monfils rolls over Zverev in Washington, Karlovic through to another final

The combination of a less-than-100 percent Alexander Zverev and a scorching-hot Gael Monfils resulted in an surpisingly lopsided semifinal contest at the Citi Open on Saturday evening. Zverev, who explained afterward that he had suffered from food poisoning the night before, succumbed 6-4, 6-0 in exactly one hour.

“For sure in the second set he was really off,” Monfils said of his opponent. “He was a different player. I could see that the second set was a bit different; it was tougher for him.”

Of course, it likely would have been tough for Zverev regardless of his condition. Monfils has surrendered only a single set this week and has been nothing short of dominant apart from a brief mid-match stumble against Sam Querrey in the quarters. The world No. 17 maintained his fine form against Zverev, blasting 10 aces without double-faulting and breaking the 19-year-old German four times.

Next up for the Frenchman on Sunday afternoon is Ivo Karlovic in a match that will determine the Washington, D.C. champion and will also break a 2-2 tie in the head-to-head series.

Steve Johnson had solved John Isner’s serve–just barely–in the quarterfinals on Friday, but he could not do the same against Karlovic. But Johnson’s biggest problem was failing to take care of his own serve. The world No. 25 could not even force a tiebreaker, as one break in both sets was enough for Karlovic to prevail 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 18 minutes.

Karlovic double-faulted five times, including three in his first service game of the afternoon, but he doubled Johnson’s ace count (14 to seven), won 86 percent of his first-serve points, and fought off all five of the break points he faced.