Top seed Richard Gasquet will be the only remaining seed left in Montpellier as the field shrinks to four players heading into Saturday's semifinals. Gasquet dispatched of 8th seed Marcos Baghdatis 6-4, 6-4.
Gasquet Guns Down Baghdatis
Gasquet entered Friday's match with an 0-3 mark against Baghdatis in his career. He had never won a set off the Cypriot. That changed in the opening set on Friday as Gasquet scored the only break of the set in game seven. The Frenchman would close out the set on his third try at set point to ease to a 6-4 set win. The top seed was not troubled by Baghdatis on serve as he did not see a single break point. He would win 22 of 32 service points. Baghdatis again could not find his first serve regularly, getting just 52 percent in pay. That left Gasquet with 14 second serves to punish, where he would win half the points.
The second set began quickly for Gasquet with an immediate break as the match looked to get away from the 8th seed in a hurry. Gasquet would unexpectedly stumble in game two as he fell behind 0-40. He could not fight off all three break chances as Baghdatis converted and got back on serve at 1-1. The 8th seed would wind up lamenting the fourth game of the set where he blew three break chances to take a lead. Gasquet held strong and would eventually pressure Baghdatis into the pivotal break of the match in the 7th game again. Gasquet would win just four more points than Baghdatis in the set, but his toughness on break chances was the key. He saved five of six break chances in the testy second set, where it appeared at times that the set might get away from the defending champ.
Zverev Advances to Semifinals 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5
Alexander Zverev won the war of attrition against Michael Berrer for one of the semifinal spots. Zverev broke in the 5th game to take the lead, but had given it back by the 10th with the score tied at 5-5. Both would manage holds to send the set to a tiebreak. Berrer would take the first two points of the youngster's serve and that would be all he needed to lock up the breaker at 7-2. Berrer won 29 of his 40 service points in the opening set. The second set saw a turnaround for Zverev in the sixth game. After saving four break points of his own early in the set, the teen jumped on his first opportunity from Berrer. He would break on the second chance of the game for a 4-2 lead. For good measure, Zverev added a bonus break to close out the set at 6-2. That set the stage for an ugly, but tension filled final set.
Zverev opened on serve and survived an epic first game. He was forced into six deuces along with saving four break points just to get to 1-0. After a Berrer hold, Zverev was again under pressure on serve and this time he cracked. Berrer could not capitalize however as he gave that lead back in the next game to square the set at 2-2. Service holds would dominate the next five games with Zverev surviving a shaky 5th game where he saved four break points. Serving to stay in the match, Berrer managed a tense hold in the 10th game. He fought off three match points. Zverev would not be denied however as he held and then sent Berrer home in the 12th game as he converted a break on his 5th try and match point. The last set saw 18 combined break chances. Zverev came through with some gutsy effort, saving 10 of his 11. Berrer would save five of seven.
Semifinal Spots For Mathieu and Brown
French veteran Paul-Henri Mathieu won a difficult match against John Millman in three sets. The Frenchman won an opening set that was all about service holds in a tiebreak, 7-5. The stage seemed set for a quick finish of Millman as Mathieu broke the slightly rattled Aussie in the opening game. To Millman's credit, he would fight back with a break of serve as the set moved even at 2-2. Mathieu fought off a pair of break points in the fifth game as the set meandered on-serve until game 11. That is when Millman scored his second break of the set to lead 6-5. He would close out the set on serve at 7-5.
The final set would turn on three key games as both players held early on. In the 4th game, the Aussie would face the first break point and save it. Mathieu would answer that in the next game by saving four break chances to hold to 3-2. The tide would turn in the Frenchman's favor the next game as he secured the decisive break of serve. After holding off another break chance, Mathieu led 5-2 as the pair would swap service holds to finish the match in Mathieu's favor 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-3. For Mathieu, the win gets him to his first tour level semifinal since losing the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel, Austria last August.
The final singles match of the day saw qualifer Dustin Brown secure his first ATP World Tour semifinal with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Ruben Bemelmans. Brown was not quite as overpowering has had been on serve, but it was good enough. The qualifier from Germany won 70 percent of his serving points while pumping in four aces. He saved four of five break chances. Bemelmans again had trouble with his own serve and finally found someone willing to punish him for it. The Belgian gave out ten break chances with Brown able to convert four of them.
Semifinal Schedule
Alexander Zverev and Paul-Henri Mathieu get Saturday's slate underway on Centre Court. It will mark the fourth meeting already between the two. The German teen has won two of three so far and won their only hard court meeting in 2014. Gasquet will follow against Brown. Saturday marks their first time to go against each other.