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4/10/09 5:57 PM | Ricky Dimon
Igor Andreev and Albert Montanes reach the Casablanca semifinals on Friday afternoon. They are joined in the last four by Florent Serra.
(1) Igor Andreev d. (6) Marc Gicquel 6-1, 6-3
Andreev destroyed Gicquel in a mere 53 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Grand Prix Hassan II on Friday afternoon. It had to be a big relief for Andreev to finish the match with such speed after needing three hours and 18 minutes to survive a second-round clash with Nicolas Devilder just one day earlier. Against Gicquel, the top-seeded Russian broke serve in the opening game of the match and never looked back. Dictating play with his heavy topspin forehand and capitalizing on far too many errors off his opponent's racket, Andreev lost just two points on serve in the opening frame of play. Similar domination continued in set two. The world No. 22 dropped only three points on serve, so one more break was enough to finish off the 32-year-old Frenchman. Andreev will meet Juan Carlos Ferrero for a spot in Sunday's title match.
(3) Albert Montanes d. Frederico Gil 7-6(5), 6-4
Montanes finished off his quarterfinal match with Gil in straight sets, but Gil was extremely competitive until the tail end of each set. The competitors exchanged two breaks apiece as the opening frame of play progressed to a tiebreaker. That's when a flurry of unforced errors infested Gil's game and the Portuguese clay-courter fell into a 1-5 hole. He did his best to scramble out of the deficit, but Montanes eventually held on to take the 'breaker seven points to five. The third-seeded Spaniard, ranked 35 spots ahead of Gil at 35th in the world, picked up his serve in set two and he did not face a single break point. Gil also did not face a break point until he served to stay in the match at 4-5. The unseeded underdog raced to a 40-15 advantage, but he collapsed therafter and Montanes' first break of the set ended the match in one hour and 42 minutes.
Montanes will meet No. 5 seed Florent Serra on Saturday for a spot in the Casablanca title match. The Frenchman ousted Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-0, 6-4 in just over one hour on Friday afternoon. Serra dominated the first set in 22 minutes, but made things more interesting than necessary in the second. Gabashvili fought back from an early break to level the set at 4-4, but Serra won the last two games to book his spot in the semifinals.
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