Stuttgart, Germany – Top seeds Janko Tipsarevic and Juan Monaco moved into the semifinals at the Mercedes Cup tennis event.
The Serbian Tipsarevic saved four match points before coming from behind to beat German favorite Bjorn Phau 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, while the Argentine Monaco handled Slovenian qualifier Pavol Cervenak 6-1, 7-5 on the red clay at TC Weissenhof. Tipsarevic needed almost three hours to stave off the speedy Phau. who piled up 10 double faults in defeat on Friday.
Tipsarevic will face Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci in Saturday's semifinals, while Monaco will encounter Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, who defeated German wild card Dustin Brown 6-0, 6-3 on Day 5. Bellucci reached the final four with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe.
Monaco already owns a pair of clay-court titles this year.