Quarters done in Montpellier, Sofia

Quarter finals in two of the three ATP tournaments in progress this week.

Sofia Open in Sofia, Bulgaria

• Daniil Medvedev (3) v Martin Klizan 6-4 6-1

Medvedev served well in the opening set, winning 20 of 24 points on his first serve, but Klizan denied him on break point opportunities, saving 10 of them. However, it only took the one for Medvedev to convert, and he took the set 6-4.

Set two was one way traffic, and breaking serve three times, Medvedev improved to 9-2 on the season, winning 6-4 6-1

• Gaël Monfils (7) v Stefanos Tsitsipas (2)

Monfils suffered three straight first round losses last year from the end of September, the third of those to Tsitsipas in Shanghai in October.  Since then, the Frenchman has had a good run - finalist in Antwerp and quarter finalist in Vienna to finish the year.  And although he lost a four setter second round match in the AO in January, he was nevertheless displaying promising early signs.

In the rematch with Tsitsipas, Monfils broke serve in the opening game, and with a first delivery of his own reaping 92% of points, he had no trouble holding that break, even cracking the Greek serve another time to take a 6-3 lead.

Tsitsipas had no chance in set two either, with Monfils winning 94% of points on first serve.  Both players were free of service breaks and Tsitsipas led 5-4 in the tie break, before Monfils came home the stronger, winning the final three points and the match 6-3 7-6(5)

Semi Final: Daniil Medvedev (3) v Gaël Monfils (7)

• Marton Fucsovics was handed a walkover from Roberto Bautista Agut who was suffering illness.
• Matteo Berrettini v Fernando Verdasco (6)

Berrettini recovered from a set down, and proceeded to hold serve easily for the rest of the match, facing just a single break point over the course of sets two and three. Verdasco stuck close, but his serve was fractured once in each of those sets, providing Berrettini with success 4-6 7-5 6-4. 

Semi Final: Marton Fucsovics v Matteo Berrettini 

Open Sud de France in Montpellier, France

• Radu Albot defeated qualifier Marcos Baghdatis 6-2 7-6(2)
• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Jérémy Chardy (6) 6-7(6) 7-6(4) 6-4

Semi Final: Radu Albot v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 

• Pierre-Hugues Herbert (7) defeated wildcard Denis Shapovalov (3) 7-5 7-6(4)
• Tomas Berdych v Filip Krajinovic

In an absorbing battle, after 182 minutes, the players were separated by a mere four points.  Berdych took the first set in a tie break, after the pair had both won 71% of points on serve, and neither had faced a break point.

Krajinovic trailed 3-4 and down a break in the second set, but fought back to eventually square the match at a tie break each.  The Serb actually lead 5-3 in the decider, following his breaking  of the Berdych serve in the opening game.  However, the Czech saved two match points, and proceeded to break Krajinovic on the way to winning 14 of the last 18 points, plus the match 7-6(3) 6-7(5) 7-5.

After being out injured since Wimbledon last year, Berdych had suffered a ranking drop, and came to France ranked 79.  He will leave no lower than 59, and possibly as high as 50 if he wins the tournament and results go his way in Córdoba.

Semi final: Pierre-Hugues Herbert (7) v Tomas Berdych