DPA/Dusseldorf
Argentine Juan Monaco skipped the warm-up to get down to business in five Celsius winter-like conditions yesterday, coming up with the first of the semi-final places at the PowerHorse Open. |
The third seed beat Tobias Kamke 6-3, 6-4 in 70 minutes to leave host Germany with just one player - second seed Tommy Haas - remaining from five starters at the Rochusclub.
Haas, this month’s Munich champion, will attempt to reach his second straight semi-final on home clay when he faces Finnish sixth seed Jarkko Nieminen.
Morning rain and an unseasonable chill gripping the western half of Europe made the Monaco win a challenge, with neither man getting a chance for a pre-match warm-up and given just ten minutes notice to play.
Monaco managed all the same to reach his second semi-final of the season after Houston last month where he lost to John Isner.
“We knew it would be this cold, but what could we do,” said the 19th-ranked winner. “This was the coldest match I think that I’ve ever played. It’s winter now in Argentina, so we are used to it, but the conditions were difficult all the same.”
Monaco was broken while serving for the match in the second set but got the break-back and the victory a game later over Kamke.
“The conditions were really heavy and it was tough to get a rhythm,” said the winner who has the fifth-most clay wins (188) among active players.
“I played a little better than him in the end and won it playing very well. The balls were really heavy, this is one of the slowest clay courts I have played on.”
Monaco will play the Friday semi-final against compatriot Guido Pella, who broke further ground by playing and winning his first ATP quarter-final with an upset of Serb seventh seed Viktor Troicki 7-6 (7-5), 7-5.
The number 101 qualifier followed up his knockout of top seed Janko Tipsarevic with a similar performance against Troicki in one and three-quarter hours.
Like Monaco, Pella was broken which serving for a straight-sets win but came through for another unexpected victory with his third ace on match point after Troicki had saved three break points.