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The third seed won his ninth career title in
Montpellier on Sunday and after a tight first set against the
spirited Evans he made light work of his opponent in the second.
Monfils will meet Serb Filip Krajinovic or Russian seventh seed
Andrey Rublev, while Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta faces Canadian
teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime in the other semi-final after
both came through with narrow triumphs.
Carreno Busta overcame a gritty challenge from Italian Jannik
Sinner to win 7-5 3-6 7-6(6) in a marathon clash.
The Spaniard squandered three match points while leading 5-4 in
the final set before saving two himself at 6-4 down in the
tiebreak to advance in two hours and 45 minutes.
"It was very tough mentally to continue fighting on every
point," said Carreno Busta, who won his third consecutive
three-setter at the tournament. "I know that I lost a lot of
opportunities to close out the match.
"I didn't play good points, I was playing too slowly and not
aggressively. But after that I continued fighting very well and
saved two match points playing aggressively in the tiebreak. It
was a very important match to win."
Auger-Aliassime beat Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene, despite being
unwell and looking out of sorts, winning 6-4 7-6(6).
The 19-year-old broke Bedene at 5-4 to take the first set and
looked firmly in control in the second before the Slovenian
picked up his game to force a tiebreak with well executed points
designed to tire out the struggling Auger-Aliassime.
However, the visibly exhausted Canadian managed to save a set
point before winning the tiebreak and advancing to only his
third career ATP 500 semi-final.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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