TENNIS in DEPTH.

Top seed and last year’s beaten finalist Gael Monfils wasted two match points before being knocked out of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart in the first round by Romania’s Victor Hanescu. In a match which resumed with Monfils 4-2 up overnight, the world number 64 Hanescu survived a tight second set tie-break before turning the match in his favour and winning 2-6 7-6 (9-7) 6-4.

On another rain-affected day, Spain’s Marcel Granollers needed one hour and 10 minutes to defeat Italian seventh seed Andreas Seppi 6-3 3-6 6-1 in another delayed first round showdown.

Defending champion Albert Montanes was knocked out in the second round by fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar, who progressed to the quarter-finals with a 2-6 6-4 6-3 success.

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Rafael Nadal survived some hairy moments to see off the challenge of Gilles Muller and progress into the second week of Wimbledon. The defending champion, facing the man who sent him packing from SW19 in 2005, could easily have lost the first two sets on tie-breaks as Muller went close to playing – or at least serving – him off Court One. But Nadal came through both of them, one before the rain that called time on the match on Friday evening and one on Saturday, to move into the fourth round with a 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/5) 6-0 victory. However, the Mallorcan will spend his day off on Sunday knowing he was in a real battle with the world number 96 from Luxembourg, and, had he not saved two set points in the first set, things may well have turned out differently. Having taken the tensest of openers on Friday night, Nadal left the court for treatment following a tumble but did not return until today as the weather intervened and forced play to be cancelled at 7pm. He showed no obvious signs of discomfort as he returned to the court, but if his body was not troubling him then Muller certainly was.

Monfils was sent crashing out of Wimbledon, beaten 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-3 by Poland’s Lukasz Kubot. Their match resumed on Court Three at one set all and 3-3 on Saturday after being bit by bad weather on Friday. Tomas Berdych, last year’s beaten Wimbledon finalist, cruised into the fourth round with an easy win over Alex Bogomolov Jr. The sixth seed from the Czech Republic saw off his American opponent 6-2 6-4 6-3 on Court 18. Berdych, 25, beat six-time champion Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic at the All England Club in 2010 before losing to eventual champion Rafael Nadal. In the fourth round, he will face another American, 10th seed Mardy Fish. Fish progressed after third round opponent Robin Haase of the Netherlands retired with an injury, with the score at 6-3 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 1-1.

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Roger Federer set up a French Open semifinal showdown with high-flying Novak Djokovic after an untidy straight-sets victory over Gael Monfils on Tuesday. Federer, the 2009 champion, is still to drop a set at this year’s tournament, but in Djokovic he faces an opponent who is just one win short of John McEnroe’s 1984 record of 42 matches unbeaten at the start of a season. Second-seeded Djokovic will also take over from defending champion Rafael Nadal as world number one if he prevails against Federer on Friday, having beaten the great Swiss in their past three encounters.

“I’m very happy to be in the semifinals,” said Federer, after beating ninth seed Monfils 6-4 6-3 7-6(3) in a scrappy, wind-affected match that featured an astonishing 95 unforced errors from both players. “Playing a semifinal here at Roland Garros is a great moment and playing such a great player is what we train for.” Federer, the third seed, made an uncertain start amid windy, overcast conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier and was broken to love in his second service game. The Swiss broke back immediately, however, thanks to a perfectly judged backhand drop shot that bit and died in the dust, before obliging Monfils to fight off three break points in the eighth game. Seeded outside the top two at a Grand Slam for the first time since Wimbledon in 2003, Federer brought up two set points on Monfils’s serve shortly afterwards and then clinched the first set when the world number nine put a forehand wide. Following an exchange of breaks in the second set, Federer broke for a 4-2 lead when Monfils double faulted, prompting the Frenchman to fling his racquet to the ground in disgust. Both men were culpable of some dismal shot-making, but it did not prevent Federer from closing out the set when a stretching Monfils sent a backhand long. Monfils saved three break points at 4-4 in the third set and two at 5-5, but swiftly fell 6-1 down in the ensuing tiebreak and was finally beaten when Federer thrashed a forehand winner down the line.

“My big weakness today was that I wasn’t able to serve at all,” Monfils said. “If I’d had more of a serve, I would not have been handicapped. The wind made things really difficult.”

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Gael Monfils will play Roger Federer in the last eight of the French Open for the second time in three years after he overcame seventh seed David Ferrer in a five-set epic. Monfils took his fourth match point to claim a 6-4 2-6 7-5 1-6 8-6 victory on Court Suzanne Lenglen. It looked like the home favourite had blown his chance when he tightened up serving for the match at 5-3 in the decider and squandered two match points. Ferrer duly broke back and then saved another match point on his own serve, but when Monfils moved 0-40 ahead in the Spaniard’s next service game, there was no way back and the 24-year-old brought the crowd to their feet with a forehand winner.

The result was something of a surprise given seventh seed Ferrer’s form this year and it initially looked like he had taken control of the match. Play was called off on Sunday night for darkness with the Spaniard 2-0 up in the fourth set and he raced through that to level the match but could not complete the job.

Monfils, who is set to rise to No 8 in the 2011 ATP rankings on Monday, hit 57 winners and 11 aces overall in the four-hour and seven-minute encounter which was his third straight win against Ferrer.

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Gael Monfils withdrew from the San Jose Open after beating American wild card Tim Smyczek 6-4 7-6 in the quarter-finals on Friday. The Frenchman aggravated an injured left wrist when he beat Robert Kendrick on Thursday and decided to pull out after beating Smyczek. “It’s been a month-and-a-half that I’ve had this pain,” Monfils said. “I can’t hit my backhand. I tried, but my backhand is very soft. I have a better backhand than I showed here… more powerful.” Monfils is expected to be on the sidelines for six weeks in all, meaning he will miss tournaments in Memphis and Acapulco as well as a Davis Cup tie.

The decision also means that his semi-final opponent in San Jose, Canada’s Milos Raonic, advances to the final in a walkover. He beat Richard Berankis 6-4 7-6 on Friday. Elsewhere, top seed and defending champion Fernando Verdasco broke once in each set to record a 6-4 6-4 win over fifth seed Denis Istomin. “I tried to play a game he doesn’t like, with a lot of spin, and it went well,” the Spaniard said. “I played well on the important points, like I did yesterday, which was good too. I knew it would be tough. Denis made it to the semi-finals here last year and the conditions benefit him.”

Juan Martin del Potro continued his comeback from the wrist injury that kept him out of action for most of 2010 with a comfortable 6-2 6-3 win over Lleyton Hewitt. The Argentine will next face Verdasco in the only semi-final to be played on Saturday.

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Defending champion Fernando Verdasco moved into the quarter-finals of the SAP Open in San Jose with a straight-sets win over Ivo Karlovic. Big-serving Croatian Karlovic fired down 14 aces during the contest but it was Verdasco who secured the two breaks in the match to seal a 7-5 7-5 success.

Juan Martin Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion, is also through as he completed a straightforward 6-1 7-6 (7/1) triumph over Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko. The Argentinian will now meet seventh seed Leyton Hewitt in the last eight after the Australian overcame a slow start to defeat Del Potro’s compatriot Brian Dabul 3-6 7-5 6-3.

Denis Istomin required two tie-breaks to overcome America’s Michael Russell as the fifth seed secured a 7-6 (9/7) 7-6 (7-4) success. Wild card Tim Smyczek defeated Japan’s Kei Nishikori 6-4 3-6 6-1 while France’s Gael Monfils was a 6-2 5-7 6-4 victor over America’s Robert Kendrick.

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Stan ‘the man’ Wawrinka has not had the easiest time of late so a  straight sets win over the energetic Frenchman Gael Monfils to reach the fourth round of Australian Open 2011 was most well-timed. The energetic Frenchman tends to be a joy to watch, and a photographer’s dream, as he slips and slides his way about the court, hurling his frame in the direction of every ball that he can see, and more often than not, making them. Not at the moment. Monfils entered his third round today on the back of an arduous five-set win over Thiemo de Bakker, and a further four sets at the hands of Federico Gil. Hardly names to light up the lights of Melbourne Park.

But, contrary to form, Monfils began well in this evening’s third-round encounter, going up a break in the fifth game, and looking to get an early start on his fellow French-speaker. Wawrinka was not reading the script. Hitting 23 winners to La Monf’s 14, red-nosed Stan broke back, and then held fast to make his way into a first set tie-break. Again, Monfils was the one to go ahead, only for the Swiss to turn it around and steal the tiebreak 7-4, despite producing five more unforced errors than his French opponent.

The first set secured, albeit by a squeak, it gave Wawrinka the ammunition of confidence he needed to begin hitting out without a care in the world. Or at least in Melbourne. Totting up a further 24 winners in set No.2, the Swiss No.2 motored his way into a 5-1 lead, leaving a lost Monfils gazing at every ball that flew past. With a two-set lead after 117 minutes, Wawrinka continued to deny Monfils any sort of pleasure, bumbling around the court in his Lacoste gear, and breaking immediately to go 2-0 up. The rest of the third set was business-like to say the least, the Swiss player allowing no quarter as he romped into a 5-1 lead, forcing the Sliderman to serve to stay in the match. It looked like Wawrinka might allow Monfils one more game to spare his blushes, but not exactly. Deuce on the Monfils serve, the Swiss scorched a cross court forehand passing shot past the Frenchman’s fingers to bring up his first match point. Against the run of play, Monfils held, and handed the baton back to Wawrinka. He didn’t disappoint. Serving out the match for a 7-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory, the Swiss advanced to a fourth-round meeting with Andy Roddick.

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Perth tennis fans had better prepare for a long day when Nicolas Mahut, replacing the injured Gael Monfils in the French team, takes on American John Isner in a Hopman Cup match on January 3. With Monfils out of action for at least four weeks because of knee pain, Mahut will partner Kristina Mladenovic at the Jan 1-8 tournament, organisers said on Monday.

Isner beat Mahut in the world’s longest tennis match, a 183-game epic played over 11 hours and five minutes with the fifth set decided 70-68, in the first round of this year’s Wimbledon men’s singles championship. Hopman Cup tournament director Paul McNamee is among those seeking another marathon battle. “That Wimbledon match was an epic in every sense of the word, so it will long be remembered,” McNamee said. “But I am now looking forward to watching these guys battle it out in Perth.”

Monfils was disappointed after being told by a doctor to skip the mixed teams event. “I was looking forward to participating in the Hopman Cup for the first time,” he said. “I sincerely hope that I will have the opportunity to play there in the near future.”

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