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2010 champion Gael Monfils and top seed Tomas Berdych prevailed over their semi-final opponents in contrasting fashion to seal their berths in the final of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier, an ATP world tour 250 event. No.3 seed Monfils toppled his countryman and no.2 seed Gilles Simon for the first time in three meetings after saving a match point in the second set. The world no.7 Berdych had a relatively easier straight sets win over German world no. 33 Philipp Kohlschreiber, the man who had beaten no.4 seed Richard Gasquet in the quarters.

In the first semi final, world no.13 Monfils was looking to recapture the form that saw him defeat Rafael Nadal en route to making the final at the season opening Doha tournament. On the other hand, world no.12 Simon was looking to capitalise on the psychological edge he enjoyed over Monfils having beaten him in their two previous meetings, the last one coming on clay in the quarter-finals of the 2011 Hamburg Open.

The way the match started, it looked as if the 25 year old Monfils was still suffering from the 'mental block' as he failed to convert three of the 4 breakpoints that came his way in set 1. Simon, on his part, converted 2 out of 3 and fired the first salvo by taking the first set 6-4. The second set saw Simon raising his first serve percentage to a commendable 73 percent whereas Monfils recorded a below par 52 percent. In spite of the difference in first serve percentage, Monfils somehow managed to save eight break point opportunities including a match point in the twelfth game and took the set into the tie-break. And poetically enough, his service regained the quality which was evident in his previous matches as he snuffed out the tie-break 7-4.

After the second set setback, the 27-year old Simon did comeback strongly in the third, converting both his breakpoint opportunities. However, that was simply not good enough as Monfils created more and crucially, broke his opponent thrice to take the third set 6-4 and emerge victorious in 2 hours and 26 minutes.

There was no such drama in the second semi-final as the talented Czech Tomas Berdych did enough to take down Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4 in 83 minutes. If one has a look at the two players' first serve percentage, the result may come as bit of a surprise as Berdych had a poor 53 percent to go against Kohlschreiber's 64 percent. Amazingly however, the world no.7 Berdych won 100 percent of his first serve points (34/34), saved all 5 breakpoints that he faced in the match and broke Kohlschreiber once in each set. It was this 'big point mentality' which made the difference in the end and titled the scales in favour of the 2010 Wimbledon finalist.

Heading into the final, Berdych would be looking to capture his seventh ATP title with his last triumph having come at the 2011 China Open. Monfils, on the other hand, would be bidding for his fifth career title. Berdych had prevailed in their only previous meeting at the 2008 Dubai Open (hardcourt). The Frenchman would be looking for revenge and will pose some tough questions.

Semi-final results:

(3) G. Monfils (FRA) d. (2) G.Simon (FRA) 4-6 7-6(4) 6-4

(1) T. Berdych  (CZE) d. (7) P. Kohlschreiber (GER) 6-3 6-4