Monfils, Youzhny Cruise Into Hamburg Quarterfinals
By James Waterson Photo Credit: Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images
Monfils, the top seed, overpowered his 57th-ranked opponent. He hit 10 aces, won 65 percent of his service points, and broke Stepanek three times.
With today’s win, he now has a 5-2 record against Stepanek, and he has made his fourth ATP quarterfinal of the year.
He moves on to face Gilles Simon, the fifth seed and his doubles partner in Hamburg. Simon outlasted Jarkko Niemenen of Finland 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4.
Both players won 100 points and won an almost identical percentage of serve and return points, but Simon earned the only break in the third set to close out the match.
Monfils and Simon have played only once, at the 2009 Australian Open. Yet they didn’t finish their match because Monfils retired down two sets to one.
In the same half of the draw, fourth-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia dismissed 155th-ranked Julian Reister of Germany 6-3, 6-3. Youzhny plays Croatia’s Marin Cilic, the 12th seed, who beat Tobias Kamke 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The Russian has a 4-1 record against Cilic, although the Croatian won their last match earlier this year in three sets.
Second-seeded Jurgen Melzer advanced to his first quarterfinal since April after he beat Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-3. He goes on to face eighth-seeded Fernando Verdasco, who defeated 20-year-old Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 7-5, 6-2.