Monfils Flies The Flag For France, Reaches Fourth Montpellier Final

Gael Monfils extended France’s perfect record of producing Open Sud de France finalists on Saturday, beating Filip Krajinovic 7-6(4), 6-2 to move one victory away from his third title in Montpellier.

The two-time former champion (2010, ’14) saved all three break points he faced to reach his fourth final at the ATP 250 event (2-1) after 82 minutes. Monfils improves to 2-0 in his ATP Head2Head series against Krajinovic, adding to his final-set tie-break victory against the Serbian at the 2015 Miami Open presented by Itau.

“It was a great win today. I was very solid. I think Filip played great in the first set and then I changed my game a little bit to be more aggressive and it worked,” said Monfils. “I was pleased with my performance. So far [it has been] a great week. Hopefully tomorrow is going to be the same.”

In the previous nine editions of the tournament, French players have lifted the trophy on seven occasions. Tomas Berdych (2012) and Alexander Zverev (2017) both defeated French opposition to lift their trophies in the south of France.

Monfils will face second seed David Goffin or Vasek Pospisil for the title. The World No. 9 owns two wins from five matches in his ATP Head2Head rivalry with Goffin and owns an unbeaten 5-0 record against Pospisil.

Goffin and Pospisil enter their semi-final encounter in top form. Both players are yet to drop a set this week ahead of their second ATP Head2Head clash. In their only previous meeting, Goffin outlasted the Canadian in a final-set tie-break at the 2013 Western & Southern Open.