Juan Monaco: Can the Argentine Make a Top-10 Breakthrough in 2012?

Most of the usual suspects are in the men's semifinals at the Sony Ericsson Open—Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray.

The usual "Big 4"—with Roger Federer among that group—has been broken up by none other than Juan Monaco, the 21st seed at the tournament. On the way to the final four, Monaco defeated Gael Monfils, Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish.

His performance so far is only a continuation of the past seven months for the Argentine veteran. At last year's US Open, Monaco reached the round of 16, only the third time in his career he's advanced that far at a Grand Slam. After that, he had his best stretch of playing tennis indoors: Monaco advanced to the finals in Valencia, Spain, then reached the quarterfinals of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Paris.

Over the course of those two tournaments, he defeated Nicolas Almagro, David Ferrer, Gilles Simon and Fish.

His start to 2012 didn't exactly go as planned with a five-set loss to Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first round of the Australian Open. However, Monaco did manage to rebound from that with a title-winning run in his next event, the clay-court tournament in Vina del Mar, Chile. That was Monaco's first tournament victory since he won three events back in 2007.

That year put a stamp on Monaco as a future star and the latest in a long line of successful Argentines. It didn't work out as planned as he went on to lose seven singles finals over the years—and even spent time outside of the top 50.

It's safe to say now that Monaco is back and eager to make up for lost time as he's playing some of the best tennis of his career. With the success he's having on the hard courts, returning to his best surface, clay, in the weeks ahead should spur him on to new heights—perhaps even a place among the top 10.