Nadal tops Ferrer, Djokovic eases by Cilic, more Monte Carlo results

Nadal tops Ferrer, Djokovic eases by Cilic, Monfils bests Dimitrov and Raonic retires to give Berdych a walkover into the Monte Carlo semifinals.

Author:
Lucia Hoffman
Publish date:
Apr 17, 2015

MONTE CARLO— The semifinals are set in Monte Carlo after the ATP's top players competed for the final spots in the semifinals on Friday.

No. 6 Tomas Berdych defeats No. 4 MilosRaonic 5-2, (ret)

In the first match of the day on Court Central, Berdych was leading 5-2 in the first set when Raonic had to retire due to a foot injury.

Monte Carlo Masters 2015

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE MAGNENET/AFP/Getty Images

Stan Wawrinka

Monte-Carlos Masters

John Isner

Monte-Carlos Masters

Rafael Nadal

Monte-Carlos Masters

Novak Djokovic

Monte-Carlos Masters

Tomas Berdych, Novak Djokovic

Monte-Carlos Masters

“I mean, the feelings are that the one fact is that I'm through, I'm in the semifinal, which is good. It's positive to me,” said Berdych after the match. “The other one, of course, is it's not the ideal way that you want to finish the match… I can just wish him a soon and very fast recovery, that he's back as soon as he can.”

No. 14 Gael Monfils defeats No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov 6–1, 6–3

Monfils is through to his first Masters 1000 semifinal since reaching the final in Paris Bercy five years ago. The Frenchman played a solid first set and said that he played a bit deeper against Dimitrov, forcing him to stay back behind the baseline.

Monfils will play Berdych in the first semifinal match on Saturday.

Watch this hot shot from Monfils match vs. Dimitrov on Friday:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkJZNsoAYLE]

No. 1 Novak Djokovic defeats No. 8 Marin Cilic 6–0, 6–3

Djokovic took just over an hour to dismantle Cilic, who had 27 unforced errors in the match. Cilic started to get more rhythm in the second set, but Djokovic got an early break and got the win to raise his record to 12–0 against the 2014 U.S. Open champion.

“I think I’ve done a lot right from the beginning, I put the right intensity on the court, I put a lot of balls back to make him play and served well,” said Djokovic after the match.

No. 3 Rafael Nadal defeats No. 5 David Ferrer 6–4, 5–7, 6–2

Ferrer took Nadal to three sets on Friday in the last match on Court Central but the eight-time champion came back to set up a blockbuster final against Djokovic in the semifinals on Saturday. It will be the fourth meeting between the two in Monte Carlo, with Nadal leading the head-to-head match up 23-19.