By Richard Lucas
Photo Credit THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

(May 31, 2011) Roger Federerfinished dashing the hopes for a French champion on the men's side when he eliminated the last hope, Gael Monfils in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (3). The World No. 1 rank will be on the line when Federer plays Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

Repeating their last meeting at Roland Garros in the 2009 quarterfinals, Federer handily eliminated Monfils in front of a torn crowd by taking advantage of the uncharacteristic mountain of errors piled up by the Frenchman who finished with 53 errors. Federer played a rather loose match himself, racking up 42 unforced errors.

Monfils took advantage of his chances on Federer's serve, converting three of four break chances, but allowed far too many chances on his own serve against the third seed. The Swiss capitalized with five breaks of serve, taking 45 percent of points on return.

The match had the promise of a tight contest when Monfils earned the first break of the match to go up 2-1 on one of Federer's three double faults. Federer finished the first set with his second break 6-4 after Monfils sailed a forehand.

After trading breaks again in the second set, Federer took advantage with his second break to go up 4-2 on one of  doubles faults for Monfils. Both players held serve for the remainder of the set, which Federer won 6-3.

It looked to be a foregone conclusion when Monfils gave up another break to start the third set, but the French crowd began to get behind their player, hoping for a longer, more compelling match. It worked as Monfils was able to break back to level at two games each.

After fighting off two break points at 5-5, Monfils appeared to tweak a hamstring or groin when he was wrong-footed by Federer while leading at 6-5. After forcing a tiebreak, Federer had all of the momentum, quickly racing out to a 3-0 lead before eventually winning the match 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (3).

Next up for the only player in the men's draw that has not dropped a set is the unbeaten Djokovic, who advanced to the semifinals when Fabio Fognini withdrew after suffering a leg injury.