By Adrianna Outlaw | Thursday, October 6, 2016
Gael Monfils withstood a sprained ankle and Gilles Simon, 6-1, 6-4, and will face Ivo Karlovic for a spot in the Tokyo semifinals.
Photo credit: Getty
Gael Monfils downsized Ivo Karlovic to win his biggest career title in Washington, DC in August.
The acrobatic Frenchman will have to hurdle the 6'11" Croatian again to advance to the Tokyo semifinals.
Watch: Monfils And Simon Play 37-Shot Rally
The second-seeded Monfils withstood a sprained ankle and compatriot Gilles Simon reeling off the final five games for a 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Trailing 1-4 in the second set, Monfils suffered a twisted ankle attacking net. He consulted with the trainers briefly, but returned to court without taping his ankle.
Playing with urgency, Monfils raced through the final five games snapping a four-match losing streak to Simon.
“I wanted to see whether I needed to get my ankle taped, but finally there was no need,” Monfils told the Rakuten Japan Open web site. “When you’re warm, you can sometimes play on it so I didn’t ask the physio to come back.”
It was Monfils' first win over Simon since 2012 and just his second victory in eight career meetings with his 30th-ranked compatriot.
Monfils will face Karlovic in a rematch of the Washington, DC final, which he saved a match point in a 5-7, 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory.
Karlovic slammed 24 aces edging Janko Tipsarevic, 7-6 (9), 7-6 (5) in one hour, 48 minutes.
All five sets the towering Croatian has played this week have been decided in tie breaks.
“The plan wasn’t to stay back and to hit ground strokes against Janko, but he forced me to do that quite a bit today,” Karlovic said. “Fortunately I was able to win some points that way at critical moments."
The seventh-seeded Karlovic, who is aiming for his third title of the season, has not beaten the eighth-ranked Monfils since the 2009 Cincinnati Masters event.
“Monfils has been playing much better this year," Karlovic said. "He made some changes to his service motion, bringing up his right leg, which have helped him. He’s a Top 10 player now and can only go up from here.”
Veteran left-hander Gilles Muller backed up his upset of third-seeded Tomas Berdych, denying Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 6-4.
Muller hit 11 aces and did not drop serve reaching his eighth quarterfinal of the season, including his second straight quarterfinal.
The 36th-ranked Muller will meet Nick Kyrgios for a place in the final four.
The sixth-seeded Australian took a walkover into the quarterfinals when scheduled opponent Radek Stepanek, who has served as a mentor to Kyrgios, withdrew with a back injury.
Kyrgios and Muller will square off for the first time.