Tomas Berdych ousts Gael Monfils to reach Rotterdam semis

Rotterdam: Tomas Berdych shrugged off the effects of a fall on his wrist to defeat Gael Monfils 6-1, 6-4 on Friday for a place in the semi-finals of the ATP Rotterdam World Tennis event.

The defending champion, who beat Marin Cilic for the 2014 title, won his eighth straight match at the Ahoy Stadium.

Third seed Berdych will Saturday face either top seed Andy Murray or Frenchman Gilles Simon, seeded eighth.

Berdych has now reached his third ATP semi-final of the season after posting his fourth win from five meetings with quirky French player Monfils, a former world number seven now ranked 21st.

Berdych landed on his wrist in the third game of the second set and had the trainer out to take a look before playing on without incident.

The Czech fired seven aces among his 32 winners during the 71-minute match, breaking on three of nine occasions and never facing a break point.

Monfils, whose enthusiastic game can go and off the boil in an instant, saved a match point in the penultimate game before Berdych set up two more match-winners with a forehand cross-court.

The third seed advanced on the first chance, from a Monfils error.

"It was a tough match and not as easy as the score showed," said Berdych, a finalist at Doha and an Australian Open semi-finalist last month. "I needed to play well and stay solid.

"I think my wrist will be fine, but I need to have it checked some more.

"I`m feeling good with my game, I`m satisfied with how I`m playing. For the next match I have to keep this up and improve to be ready for the next opponent."

Berdych stands 6-5 over Murray, to whom he lost a Melbourne semi-final a few weeks ago. The Czech has won just three of nine matches against Simon.