MONTPELLIER, France — Fifth-seeded Gael Monfils of France fired 15 aces and overcame a second-set wobble to beat sixth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 Saturday and reach the Open Sud de France final. Monfils improved to 4-0 in career head-to-heads against his Finnish opponent. He looked set for a comfortable win but dropped his serve in the second set, before bouncing back to break Nieminen twice in the deciding set. The 27-year-old Monfils won the tournament four years ago and will aim Sunday for his fifth career title, but his first since winning indoors at Stockholm three years ago. Three of his titles were on indoor hard courts. Monfils will play the winner of the semifinal later Saturday between top-seeded Richard Gasquet of France, the defending champion, and third-seeded Jerzy Janowicz of Poland. Fognini storms into semis Top-seeded Fabio Fognini of Italy defeated fifth-seeded Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 on Friday to reach the semifinals of the Royal Guard Open clay-court tournament in Chile. Fognini will face No. 3 Nicolas Almagro of Spain, who defeated Taro Daniel of Japan 6-2, 7-5. It was Daniel's first ATP quarterfinal match. Daniel lives in Spain, where he learned the clay-court game. Almagro has won 12 ATP events — all on clay — and six in Latin America. He is looking for his first title in Chile. In two other quarterfinals, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia won over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, and Leonardo Mayer of Argentina beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 3-6, 7-5, 6-3. Rafael Nadal skipped this event and pulled out of next week's tournament in Buenos Aires nursing a back injury and a stomach virus. He is expected to play the following week in Rio de Janeiro. Serena pulls out World No. 1 Serena Williams has withdrawn from next month's WTA tournament at Indian Wells, an event which she entered last month after boycotting it since 2001. The move came only a few hours after the 17-time Grand Slam singles champion withdrew from next week's $2.4 million WTA event in Doha, Qatar, due to a back injury she suffered at the Australian Open. Williams, however, did not cite her injury as a reason for deciding against playing at Indian Wells in March. “After careful consideration, I will not return to the Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open this year,” Williams said. “I send my best wishes to everyone involved with the tournament.” Those well wishes and her earlier decision to enter the event were a thaw in relations that became icy in 2001. Williams and her older sister Venus have boycotted the California event since 2001, when Serena was fiercely booed as she played Kim Clijsters in the final. — Agencies
