Ramos-Vinolas Beats Monfils, Moves Into Zhuhai Semi-finals

Albert Ramos-Vinolas got the better of a familiar foe on Friday for a place in his fourth ATP Tour semi-final of the season. The eighth-seeded Spaniard knocked out third seed Gael Monfils of France 7-5, 6-4 over one hour and 40 minutes at the Huajin Securities Zhuhai Championships, in their fourth FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting of the year (Monfils 3-1).

Ramos-Vinolas, who’d beaten Monfils in May at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, recovered from a slow start in a first set that featured five breaks of serve. The 31-year-old took a 3-1 advantage in the second set, before Monfils recovered to 3-3, only to be broken in the seventh game.

World No. 46 Ramos-Vinolas, who will next meet Frenchman Adrian Mannarino or Bosnia and Herzegovina qualifier Damir Dzumhur, is now 29-20 on the season. He captured his second ATP Tour title in July at the J. Safra Sarasin Swiss Open Gstaad (d. Stebe) and also finished runner-up at the Generali Open in Kitzbhuel (l. to Thiem).