Gael Monfils Tops Andy Murray in BNP Paris Tournament

Excerpted from www.TennisNow.com

The Paris final four features a fair share of French flair. Gael Monfils rifled a running backhand pass by Andy Murray to complete a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 victory that vaulted him into the BNP Paribas Masters semifinals for the second straight year. For the first time in the tournament's 25-year history two of the final four—Monfils and Davis Cup teammate Michael Llodra—are French men.

The 12th-seeded Monfils meets Roger Federer in Saturday's semifinal match that is a rematch of the highly entertaining 2008 French Open semifinal, which Federer won 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5. Federer, who also beat Monfils in the 2009 French Open quarterfinals, is 5-0 vs. the 14th-ranked Frenchman, winning 12 of the 13 sets they've played.

In one of his most dominant serving displays of the season, Federer hammered 18 aces, won 35 of 38 points on his first serve and did not face a break point in a 6-1, 7-6(4) triumph over 11th-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer.

Monfils is bidding for his second straight trip to the final. He lost to Novak Djokovic, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6(3) in the 2009 final. 

A weary Murray saw his quest for a third consecutive Masters 1000 shield come to an end against Monfils, who played more assertive tennis in registering his first hard-court win over the Australian Open finalist.

The third-seeded Scot tried an ill-advised drop shot, but Monfils, one of the fastest men in tennis, ran it down then held his ground at net where he pounced with a soft backhand drop volley for a 0-30 lead in the fifth game of the final set.

Murray double faulted to face double break point. He saved both break points—the first with a delicately-angled forehand volley and the second with a forehand winner—but when Murray sliced a backhand approach into net Monfils had a third break point.

Murray pulled off a forehand crosscourt and watched in disgust as the ball landed wide, giving Monfils a break and a 3-2 lead.  

"I just tried to keep the points shortish," Murray said. "It worked middle set but didn't really work in the third set as well. Obviously the atmosphere is great and you can lift your game a little bit. I wasn't feeling perfect going into the match and it can lift you. We had some good points. They support their home player very, very well here."

Robin Soderling swept Andy Roddick, 7-5, 6-4 to advance to his first first semifinal in five Paris Indoor appearances.

In Saturday's semifinals, the fourth-seeded Swede will face the 34th-ranked Llodra, who continued his red-hot roll through the field in defeating 2006 Paris champion Nikolay Davydenko, 7-5, 6-1, in one hour, 15 minutes in the second quarterfinal.

The 30-year-old Llodra played a brilliant brand of attacking tennis in dispatching defending champion Novak Djokovic, 7-6(6), 6-2, on Thursday.

If their past matches are any indication of what's to come, it could be a sensational semifinal. Llodra is 2-0 vs. Soderling, including a 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-6(4) win in the 2008 Rotterdam final and a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory in the Marseille quarterfinals earlier this year.

Soderling has played some of his most electrifying tennis in the City of Light in snapping Rafael Nadal's 31-match French Open winning streak with a shocking Roland Garros fourth-round upset in 2009. In June, Soderling snapped Roger Federer's record streak of 23 consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearances with a French Open quarterfinal conquest.

Roddick had beaten Soderling in their two prior Masters meetings at Indian Wells in March and Cincinnati in August, but Soderling was too strong in the rematch.