What had the potential to be an exciting night session match went bust. No 1 Novak Djokovic routed Gael Monfils 6-2, 6-1 to advance to the Rogers Cup semifinal in Montreal.
“On this level, it’s never easy, said Djokovic. You still have to make your points and you still have to make all those winners that I have done tonight.
“I mean, I have played the best match of the tournament, no doubt. Everything was going well. I had a difficult game on 2.‑All to hold my serve. After that, when I made the first break, it was incredible. 9, 10 games in a row.
“I’m happy to see my game is progressing each day.”
The win improves the Serb’s 2011 record to 51-1. He’ll face Frenchman Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in a semifinal on Saturday.
“Well, we played in Wimbledon, said Djokovic. “The last match was very close, very intense, very important for both of us. He’s been playing better in last couple of months. I think he increased his level. He’s and all‑around player. He can play pretty well on all surfaces. He has a big serve. If he serves well, he can beat anybody. He showed that in previous couple of tournaments.
“So it’s going to be tough one. It’s a fast surface. I need to return well and hope that I can get some chances.”
Fellow countryman Janko Tipsarevic will be joining Djokovic in the semi final round. He upset Tomas Berdych 6-4, 6-4. Tipsarevic’s win will place him in the top 20Â for the first time when the ATP World Tour rankings come out on Monday.
He comment on his achievement, “it means a lot. It was a goal. Two of my goals this season, the beginning of the year, was to finish the year top 20 and to win an ATP title. The second thing didn’t happen for me yet, even though I was close already two times this year. I’m happy that the first thing is happening. The goal is to finish in the top 20. Everything over that would be a tremendous success.
“I know it’s overrated, but I’m really looking at one match at a time, not thinking about ranking positions at the moment.”
The Serb will face American Mardy Fish in his semifinal match:
“Mardy is a really intelligent player. He’s a typical example of an all‑around player that can defend, stay back, be passive, but then on the other hand go to the net, play serve and volley and completely mix up the game.
” The goal would be I guess to, of course, serve as I served today and to control his serve. I feel that I was returning extremely well today. The tricky part with Mardy is if he feels the other guy is putting a lot of balls back, he goes serve and volley and mixes up and changes the pace and the rhythm of the match which he did tremendously well today in the match against Wawrinka.
“I’m going to focus on me and try to execute the serve and the return part as well as I did today, because the groundstrokes I’m feeling good for a while now. If I manage to do that, I feel that I have a chance to win.”
Jo-Wilfred Tsonga followed up Thursday night’s upset of Roger Federer by dismissing Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 6-4, 6-4.
“I was a bit tired today, said Tsonga. “I lacked energy. The match yesterday took a lot of stamina, and today my energy level was low. Therefore, I decided to focus on only a number of return games and try to focus on holding my serve. It was a way for me to save the energy I had left, not playing hard every game.”
Tsonga will be playing Novak Djokovic for a spot in Sunday’s final.
“Last time I played Djokovic in the semifinal of a Grand Slam tournament. Here I played Almagro in a Masters 1000 quarterfinal. That time against Djokovic, I believe I played well and Novak just proved he was a great player. I believe I confirmed my good game in the former match.
” I hope tomorrow I will again confirm my success.”
Video by Jennifer Knapp.
Jennifer Knapp is in Montreal covering the Rogers Cup for Tennis Panorama News. She has been following professional tennis for 15+ years and has attended dozens of tournaments around the world. She completed her own personal “Grand Slam†after attending her 1st US Open in 2002 and next on her tennis bucket list is the 2012 Olympics in London. Follow her Montreal twitter coverage this week on @GVTennisNews. Her personal twitter is @jusbjen.
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