Frenchman Monfils secures Nottingham semi-final clash with Karlovic

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The eighth seed, who reached the last four at the French Open earlier this month, beat American qualifier Vince Spadea 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 today while Karlovic saw off Andreas Seppi 6-3 3-6 6-4.

Monfils in action at Nottingham

The giant Croatian was not at his best but still fired down 19 aces to beat the Italian seventh seed.

Monfils won their only previous meeting in Monte Carlo two months ago but that was on clay, Karlovic's least favourite surface.

The Frenchman simply shrugged at the prospect of facing the 29-year-old, and said: 'For sure it will be tough but I'm not thinking about it for now.'

Monfils looked to have the opening set under control when he broke Spadea but the American hit back and was two points from taking the set at 6-5 only for his 21-year-old opponent to come good in the tie-break.

The second set was much more straightforward for Monfils, who broke the Spadea serve twice as the 33-year-old went for broke.

'It was very hard because the wind was very strong, and sometimes it was sunny and then not,' Monfils said.

'In this kind of match the solution is just to stay focused and play point after point and when you have one opportunity you take it.

'He was trying a lot of things in the second set and making a lot of mistakes and that's why it was so quick.'