Tennis
Berdych sets up Monfils final
2012-02-04 19:48
Montpellier -Top seed Tomas Berdych set up a meeting with third-seeded defending champion Gael Monfils of France in Sunday's final of the ATP event in Montpellier.
Czech Berdych, 26, eased past Germany Philipp Kohlschreiber, the seventh seed, 6-3, 6-4 after Monfils, 25, earlier ousted second-seeded fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 on Saturday.
Simon missed a match point along the way as world number 13 Monfils shrugged off a knee complaint to win in 2hr 30min and set up a meeting with either Czech Tomas Berdych or Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Monfils conceded the opening set in 43 minutes but he bagged the tiebreak in the second after staving off a match point at 5-6 and then stepped up a gear with a break at the start of the final set.
Simon battled back to 3-3 but then conceded serve once more as Monfils pipped him to the wire.
It will be the second meeting for world number seven Berdych and 13th-ranked Monfils with the Czech player winning their only previous meeting in Dubai in 2008.