Frenchman Monfils to face Ferrer

Gael Monfils kept the French flag flying at Roland Garros by beating Ivan Ljubicic in four and will now meet David Ferrer in …

Gael Monfils kept the French flag flying at Roland Garros by beating Ivan Ljubicic in four and will now meet David Ferrer in his first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final.

Monfils succeeded where four of his compatriots failed, winning his fourth-round clash 7-6 (7/1) 4-6 6-3 6-2.

The 21-year-old won the junior title in Paris four years ago but has often struggled to live up to the hype that followed that triumph in the senior ranks.

However, on this occasion he certainly didn't let his home fans down.

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After the duo traded breaks of serve in the opening set, Monfils took it by dominating the resulting tie-break.

Ljubicic fought back to level the match, securing the only break of serve of the second set.

However, the man who had come from two sets down to eliminate fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko on Saturday, failed to build on those foundations.

Monfils, who always wears his heart on his sleeve, was fired up by a row with the umpire in the third set and used it to his advantage.

After being issued with a warning for receiving coaching from the stands, Monfils broke for a 5-3 lead and duly served out.

Ljubicic, a semi-finalist here in 2006, saw his error count rise in the fourth set and he looked a beaten man long before the end.

Monfils celebrated his victory with an on-court dance and he progresses to a meeting with fifth seed Ferrer, who came through a marathon battle with Radek Stepanek.

In a match which swung one way and then the other, Ferrer prevailed in a thrilling final set to post a 4-6 6-2 1-6 6-3 6-3 victory.

Stepanek, one of only two men to beat Roger Federer on clay in 2008, claimed the only break of the first set in game nine to claim the early advantage, but Ferrer won four games in a row to close out the second set and level the match.

Stepanek wrested back control by breaking the Spaniard three times in a one-sided third set but Ferrer, who had fought back from two sets to one down against Lleyton Hewitt in his previous match, again refused to throw in the towel.

He took the match into a decider with some determined baseline play and when some untimely double faults from Stepanek helped give him a 4-0 lead there appeared to be only one winner.

However, Stepanek recovered both breaks of serve to pull back to 3-4, only for more 'double trouble' to let Ferrer back in.

This time the fifth seed did not slip up and he served out for the match.