Top seed Roger Federer, No. 2 Rafael Nadal, No. 7 Gaston Gaudio and No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez battle it out Saturday in the semifinals.
World No. 1 Federer of Switzerland faces Gonzalez of Chile. Federer reached the first Monte-Carlo semifinal of his career with a win over David Ferrer on Friday. The Swiss star has now reached the semifinals in eight of the nine Masters Series events, except Paris. Gonzalez reached the semis for the first time as well with a win over No. 4 seed Ivan Ljubicic.
Federer has a 5-0 career record over Gonzalez (12-1 in sets) with the last match a straight-sets victory in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon last year. The two also played in the third round here last year, which Federer won in three sets.
The Swiss tennis genius has a record 28-match win streak in ATP Masters Series events. His last Masters Series defeat came here last year in the quarterfinals to Richard Gasquet. Since then, Federer won the last four ATP Masters Series tournaments he played: Hamburg and Cincinnati last year, Indian Wells and Miami this year.
Gonzalez is playing in an ATP Masters Series semifinal for the third time in his career. He also made it that far in Miami in 2004 (l. to Coria) and in Cincinnati in 2002 (l. to Hewitt). Last year's third-round loss to Federer here was Gonzalez' best showing at the tournament until this year. His career record in Monte-Carlo is 6-4. He also reached the semifinals at Vina del Mar in February (l. to Massu).
World No. 2 Nadal, the defending champion here, squares off against Argentina's Gaudio in a re-match of last year's quarterfinal here, which Nadal won 6-3, 6-0. Gaudio has a 3-2 career advantage over the Spaniard, though Nadal won their last two matches, most recently last July in three straight sets in the final of the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart.
Nadal, 19, comes into the encounter riding a 40-match winning streak on clay over the past year, tied with Thomas Muster for the third longest in Open Era history. The Spanish star's last loss on clay came last April in the quarterfinals of Valencia (to Andreev). This is Nadal's third year playing in Monte-Carlo, and he has an overall mark of 12-1 here.
Gaudio is playing in the semifinals here for the second time. The first time was in his 2000 debut (l. to Hrbaty). He also reached the semifinals of an ATP Masters Series event one other time as well – in 2003 at Hamburg (l. to Coria). Gaudio's career record here is 15-5. He reached one other semifinal this year: Acapulco in March (l. to Horna).
DOUBLES PREVIEW – BJORKMAN-MIRNYI VIE FOR BERTH IN FINAL
Top seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Max Mirnyi of Belarus will play Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in the semifinals Saturday. Bjorkman and Mirnyi beat Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the quarterfinals Friday, while Bhupathi and Stepanek defeated Yves Allegro and Federer.
Bjorkman won the doubles title in Monte-Carlo with Todd Woodbridge in 2002 (d. Haarhuis-Kafelnikov) and in 2001 (d. Eagle-Florent). He also was runner-up in 1996 (l. to E. Ferreira-Siemerink). Bjorkman has played Monte-Carlo with Mirnyi only once before. They lost in the second round last year to Damm and Stepanek. Bjorkman has a career doubles record in Monte-Carlo of 21-9 with six different partners. Mirnyi, who won the title here in 2003 with Bhupathi, has a career record of 8-6 with six partners.
