Monfils, Gasquet advance to Metz semis

Top-seeded Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet were among Friday’s quarterfinal winners at the Open de Moselle tennis event at Metz, France.

Monfils, the tournament’s 2005 runner-up, was leading Janko Tipsarevic 6-1, 4-2 when the Serbian retired with a right ankle injury.

Gasquet rallied to beat Germany’s Philipp Petzschner, the fourth seed, by scores of 6-7 (2-7), 6-1, 6-3.

Monfils and Gasquet were joined in the semis by fellow Frenchman and third-seed Paul-Henri Mathieu, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victor against seventh-seeded Andreas Beck of Germany, and second-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, who trounced Russian Evgeny Korolev 6-1, 6-3.

I played the whole time at a high level and I’m very happy with the performance, Kohlschreiber said.

Mathieu recorded 18 service aces in his victory.

Saturday’s semis are Kohlschreiber-Mathieu and Monfils-Gasquet.