Number one seeds crash in ATP semis

The semi finals were completed in Rotterdam, New York and Buenos Aires.

ABN AMRO  World Tennis Tournament - an ATP 500 category tournament, on Hard GreenSet, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, 11-17 February 2019.

Semi finals 

• Gaël Monfils v Daniil Medvedev (5)

The pair exchanged several long rallies in the early stages of set one, before in the fifth game Medvedev inflicted the first break of the match on the back of Monfils errors.

Medvedev came into the match on a winning streak of fifteen sets, and despite his surrendering of serve, allowing the Frenchman to level at 4-4, the streak extended to 16 after the Russian attended to his issues.

6-4 Medvedev.

Set two saw the Monfils forehand on fire, and Medvedev was broken immediately.  At 3-1, Monfils hoped to retain his break advantage, but successive double faults contributed to his dropped serve.

Still intent on attacking the fifth seed, Monfils succeeded in breaking a second time and eventually taking the set 6-3.

The deciding set produced a break each early, and nothing much separated the players until 4-4.

A Monfils drop shot surprised Medvedev and provided the Frenchman with two break points.  The break arrived with an assault on the Russian forehand.

Serving for the match at 5-4,  Monfils pressured Medvedev by closing in on the net and with two match points, a backhand was too much for the Russian to handle.

Gaël Monfils won his way to the final 4-6 6-3 6-4

• Wildcard Stan Wawrinka defeated Kei Nishikori (1) 6-2 4-6 6-4 and will play Gaël Monfils in the final

New York Open - an ATP 250 category tournament, on Hard Indoor, in Uniondale New York, 11-17 February 2019.

Semi finals

• Qualifier Brayden Schnur defeated Sam Querrey (6) 7-6(7) 4-6 6-3
• Reilly Opelka defeated John Isner (1) 6-7(8) 7-6(14) 7-6(4) and will play Brayden Schnur in the final

Argentina Open - an ATP 250  category tournament, on Red Clay, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 11-17 February 2019.

Semi finals 

• Marco Cecchinato (3) defeated Guido Pella 6-4 6-2
• Diego Schwartzman (4) defeated Dominic Thiem (1) 2-6 6-4 7-6(5) and will play Marco Cecchinato in the final

So in each of the three tournaments all top seeds lost in their respective semi finals.

New York and Rotterdam will have unseeded finals, New York featuring two players in their debut finals at this level.  Qualifier Brayden Schnur had never won an ATP Tour match before Uniondale this week, and Reilly Opelka’s previous best was a semi final in just his third ATP Tour event, Atlanta 2016.