GAEL-FORCE MONFILS IS THE FULL MONTY

Johannesburg, South Africa - February 4, 2010 (Pictures: Reg Caldecott)

SA Open top seed Gael Monfils on Thursday night sounded a championship warning that he is ready to wear the Montecasino crown following his 6-4 7-5 win over fellow Frenchman Josselin Ouanna.

But Monfils was quick to admit after their 81-minute ordeal that he was made to work hard. "Yes, he knows my game so he was well prepared," said Monfils. "But I feel it was a good outing ahead of the later rounds and it did help to have another outing at altitude."

Two service breaks saw Monfis home and dry in the first set although he dropped service in the fifth game.

The second set went with serve until the 12th game when Monfis dumped his countryman on the also-rans SA Open 2010 scrapheap as he clinched a quarter-final berth with a  6-4 7-5 victory.

At the death, not even the desperate cries of OU-ANNA from a few local fans in the stands on the Western side of centre court could help the Frenchman to lift his game.

At the start of the day Brazilian Thiago Alves tried to spice up things with an all-out aggressive approach at the outset of his match against India's Somedev Devvarman. However, a period of sustained counter-attacking play by the Indian proved too hot to handle for Alves who was also battling to cope with the steamy conditions that prevailed at Montecasino.

Once Devvarman clinched the first set 6-4, Alves' challenge went as flat as last night's left-over beer and the Indian signed off a 6-4 6-1 victor to set up a quarterfinal showdown with Spain's David Ferrer.

Later, Ferrer was made to work hard by the Swedish Filip Prpic qualifier in their late-afternoon tie. Prpic's was constantly under pressure in his service games and in the end he succumbed to Spain's Ferrer 6-3 6-4.

In the only other second-round tie of the day South Africa's Raven Klaasen put up a plucky display against Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei but he failed to exploit his good fortunes at crucial stages of the match. Lu has a South African Airways ATP ranking of 125 as against 375 but there was nothing to suggest on the evidence of Raven's gutsy display that his opponent was 250 places higher on the world rankings.

But Lu prevailed in the end as he secured a quarterfinal berth with a 6-4 7-5 scoreline.

Lu will have his work cut out to progress any further as he meets top seed Monfills in the quarters.

On the doubles front, the match from hell finally came to a grinding halt on centrecourt where some 24 hours earlier it was blown away by a windstorm at a time when it seemed play was a mere five minutes or so from the end. The first-round tie between Raven Klaasen and Izak van der Merwe against Jeff Coetzee and Rogler Wassen of Netherlands was halted on Wednesday night after the Klaasen/Van der Merwe combo had lifted the first set 6-4 and the second set had reached a 7-7 count in the championship tiebreak.

The contest was settled in a flash on Thursday evening as only four points were played before the all-SA pair of Klaasen and Van der Merwe drove home a 6-4 7-6(10) win.

In a bizzare twist of fate, the Rohan Bopanna (India) - Aisam-Ul-Haq (Pakistan) pairing won their doubles match by default against Johan Brunstrom (Sweden) and Jean-Julien Roger (Netherlands). The match had reached a stage where the Brunstrom/Rojer pair had won the first set 6-3 and their opponents bounced back to take the second set by the same margin. The contest proceeded into the 10-point tiebreak and when the scoreline was 9-9 Brunstrom was overcome by frustration and he swung his racquet seemingly with the intention of striking the net. Instead the racquet slipped from his grasp, ricocheted off the top of the net and smashed into the hand of Bopanna on the opposite side of the net.

The umpire disqualified the offending team who will know their fate on Friday when the ATP is likely to announce disciplinary measures.
But one thing's sure: there was no malicious intent on the part of the likeable Brunstrom.

In the other doubles encounters, Eric Butorac/Rajeev Ram (USA) defeated Prakash Amritraj (IND)/James Cerretani (USA) 6-4 7-6 (6) while Steve Darcis/Xavier Malisse (Belgium) saw off Thailand pair Sanchai and Sonchat Raitwana 3-6 6-4 10-8.