TENNIS in DEPTH.

French No. 1 Gael Monfils staved off an incredible fightback from Spain’s David Ferrer to win the opening rubber in Clermont-Ferrand 76 62 46 57 64 and give France the 1-0 advantage.

Spain’s No. 1 Fernando Verdasco was outplayed in the second rubber by serve and volleyer Michael Llodra to put the two-time defending champion’s deep in a hole. Llodra defeated Verdasco in four sets after losing the first in a tie breaker.

Both Monfils and Ferrer have impressive five-set records and although early on the Frenchman looked the more tired of the two, he made the most of the courtside support and 6,000 fans inside the Grande Halle d’Auvergne to end Ferrer’s eight-match winning streak in Davis Cup and improve his career five-set record to 6-2.

Monfils credited his captain Guy Forget after the match, who kept Monfils mentally in the game by consistently telling the 23-year-old to play “like a boxer”.

It is an encouraging start to France’s campaign to defeat Spain for the first time in Davis Cup since 1923.

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Michael Llodra powered to his fourth ATP career title with victory over fellow Frenchman and doubles partner Julien Benneteau in the Open 13 final.

Llodra, a runner-up at the event in 2009, never looked in danger on his own serve and cruised to a 6-3 6-4 victory in Marseille.

The world number 79 created only two break points in the match and converted both to win in an hour and 10 minutes.

Llodra fired down 14 aces, including one on his first match point, and afterwards spoke of his delight to have avenged his defeat to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last year.

“I had set myself one aim this year and that was to win a tournament in France at last. I’m proud,” said Llodra, who won his previous titles in Hertogenbosch, Rotterdam and Adelaide.

Eighth-seeded Benneteau battled for almost three hours to beat defending champion Tsonga in the semi-finals on Saturday but he refused to blame Sunday’s loss on fatigue.

“My previous matches have been tough and long but that is not the reason why I lost. I lost because of Michael Llodra. I can only say ‘hats off to him’ as he served extremely well. I’ve had no break points,” Benneteau, 28, told Sport+.

“It’s tough to end a tournament this way but I couldn’t do anything,” the world number 39, who has yet to win an ATP title, added.

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Robin Soderling of Sweden lost to Michael Llodra of France on Friday, falling 7-6 (2), 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Open 13.

Llodra, runner-up to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga last year in an all-French final, never lost his serve and had 15 aces.

“I have great sensations,” Llodra said. “I knew it would be difficult to return his serve, but I waited for the good opportunity and I was able to keep my nerves under control.”

Tsonga joined Llodra in the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over lucky loser Illya Marchenko of Ukraine.

In a quarterfinal between two big servers, Llodra and Soderling offered few rallies but strong play at the net.

Soderling, who earned his fifth career title in Rotterdam last week, lost control of the first set in the tiebreaker when he missed two consecutive forehands.

Llodra, who beat seventh-seeded Marcos Baghdatis in the second round, made the decisive break for a 2-0 advantage in the second set, and won the match when Soderling sent a passing shot wide on the first match point.

“I knew he would be nervous after losing the first set and I put the pressure on him,” Llodra said. “It paid off.”

Llodra will play the winner of the quarterfinal between Mischa Zverev of Germany and wild card Guillaume Rufin of France.

Tsonga was inconsistent against Marchenko, squandering eight of 11 break points.

Tsonga, who reached the Australian Open semifinals, showed his nerves toward the end when he wasted two match points with backhand errors.

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Ivan Ljubicic ensured there will not be an all-French final at the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon after romping to a 6-2 6-4 win over Arnaud Clement. He will face  Michael Llodra who overcame Gilles Simon.

Croatian Ljubicic has been in exceptional form, facing only two break points in the whole tournament. He kept up that record as he served six aces and broke twice in a one-sided first set and, though the second was much more closely contested, he had enough in reserve to set up a meeting with Llodra.

The three sets in the later clash yielded just one break of serve as Simon, the second-seeded world number 12, also failed to force even a solitary break point.

He did manage to win the opening set, taking a tie-break 7-4, but Llodra hit back to level the match at 1-1.

And the unseeded wildcard hit 11 of his 24 aces in a final set which ended in a one-sided tie-break, Llodra wrapping up a 6-7 (4/7) 6-3 7-6 (7/1) win.

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