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6/7/08 12:33 AM | Ricky Dimon
Roger Federer takes out Gael Monfils in four sets on Friday afternoon in the French Open semifinals. The win makes a third-straight final between Federer and Nadal a reality.
Fasten your seatbelts. It's Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal for a third-straight year in the French Open final.
Federer eliminated surprise semifinalist Gael Monfils 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 in three hours and five minutes, joining Rafael Nadal in Sunday's title match. Nadal erased Novak Djokovic in three sets earlier in the day to also retain his No. 2 ranking.
After one set it looked like Federer might have it as easy as Nadal had it just hours before. Knowing that he was going up against arguably the fastest player in tennis in Monfils, Federer understood that the only way to consistently get balls by his opponent would be to come to the net. The No. 1 player in the world did so 10 times in the first set and won all of those net points. He lost just four points on serve in four service games and two service breaks of his own were more than enough to cruise 6-2.
An early break for Federer in set two made it look like the match would be a runaway, but to the delight of the French fans their man promptly stormed back. Monfils started playing much more aggressively, firing a ridiculous 27 winners in the second frame of play while getting into the forecourt 14 times. After leveling things at 5-5, Monfils held serve and then broke when Federer netted a volley at deuce and then threw away the set with a wild forehand shank.
Monfils was unable to sustain that necessary high level, however, despite a quick hold of serve to go up 1-0 in the third. Unforced errors crept into his game more and more whereas Federer made just three errors of his own in set three. That allowed the Swiss to restore order to the match in routine 6-3 fashion.
Not about to bow out of his home Grand Slam with a mere whimper, Monfils fought hard in the fourth set and earned himself break points at 1-1, 2-2, and 3-3. He failed to capitalize on any of them, but he kept his head on straight and saved a break point--and match point--against him with an ace while serving at 4-5. The crowd went wild as Monfils tied it up at 5-5, but in typical Federer fashion, the tournament's top seed raised his level one final time to win the last two games of the match.
Overall it was awesome stuff from both players. Winner-to-error ratio was 87 to 30 (Federer) and 84 to 40 (Monfils).
Monfils converted just three of 13 break-point chances.
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janhavi, Nov 21, 2008 1:53 PM
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Roger Federer 
French Open