Monfils Doubles His Fun In Eastbourne

Jun292017

Gasquet, #NextGenATP Medvedev round out semi-final lineup

Second seed Gael Monfils picked up two emphatic wins on Thursday at the Aegon International on Eastbourne, closing out his day with a 7-6(4), 6-0 victory over Bernard Tomic to reach the semi-finals.

Monfils prevailed earlier in the day over local wild card Cameron Norrie and Tomic upset sixth seed Mischa Zverev. But after Monfils prevailed in a tight first-set, the Australian ran out of gas and the Frenchman found a new gear to storm through the remainder of the match. Monfils has dropped just 11 games in two matches.

Awaiting him in the semi-finals is fellow seventh seed Richard Gasquet, who broke serve four times to cruise past third seed John Isner 6-3, 6-2 in 54 minutes. The Frenchman started the day with a straight-sets win over Kevin Anderson. Gasquet improves his FedEx ATP Head2Head against Isner to 3-2.

Monfils leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Gasquet 8-7. They’ve already played three times this year, with Gasquet winning last week in Halle and in February on home soil in Marseille. Monfils prevailed over his fellow Frenchman via retirement at Roland Garros.

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#NextGenATP Russian Daniil Medvedev overcame a mid-match surge from fourth seed Steve Johnson to score a 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 upset. Both men played six sets on Thursday, with Medvedev scoring a three-set win over Robin Haase and Johnson doing the same against Thomas Fabbiano. In a match punctuated by big serving and short rallies, Medvedev lost only two points on his serve in the final set to advance in 76 minutes.

The 21 year old began the year by reaching his first ATP World Tour final in Chennai. Medvedev currently sits at a career-high of No. 52 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. He’s also fifth in the Emirates ATP Race to Milan, which determines who will qualify for the season-ending Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan from 7-11 November.

Next up for Medvedev is top seed Novak Djokovic, a winner earlier in the day over Donald Young. Djokovic won their lone FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting when Medvedev was forced to retire due to injury this February during a World Group first-round Davis Cup tie in Serbia.

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