Six years after last meeting, Wawrinka gets best of Monfils in Paris

For the first time in over six years on Monday, Gael Monfils and Stan Wawrinka met on a tennis court.

On the line? A spot in the French Open quarterfinals.

The pair had last met at the 2011 Australian Open, and had split their four meetings dating back to 2007. The fifth match in their head to head—the rubber, so to speak—was one of the more highly-anticipated duels of Day 9.

The third-seeded Swiss, who won this tournament back in 2015, defeated the home favorite in straight sets, but it was hardly a walk in the park. A 7-5, 7-6 (7), 6-2 victor, Wawrinka had his hands full in the first two sets and sealed the match with a backhand down the line on his third match point.

Wawrinka has now reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros four times, but he’ll need to get past Marin Cilic to advance to the semis for a third year in a row.

Cilic, seeded seventh, had an easier time on Monday. Leading 6-3, 3-0 against Kevin Anderson, the unseeded South African retired with a left thigh injury, sending the former U.S. Open champion into his maiden French Open quarterfinal. Roland Garros was the only major in which the Croatian hadn’t advanced past the fourth round.

In other men’s action, top-seeded Andy Murray hammered 21-year-old Karen Khachanov, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, for his 650th career win on tour.

Murray will meet Kei Nishikori for a spot in the semifinals. The eighth seed appeared to be in serious trouble early on, dropping the first set 6-0 to veteran Fernando Verdasco, but the steady Japanese player found his game in a hurry and took the next three sets for a 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 win.

Holding Serve with Roger Federer will air on Thursday, June 8th at 2 p.m. ET, only on Tennis Channel.

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