ATP Washington – FridayPreview

Gael Monfils vs. Janko Tipsarevic

Top seed Gael Monfils takes on tricky Serb Janko Tipsarevic in Washington tonight.

Monfils was among the many players having to play catch-up on Thursday after rain had hit the schedules earlier in the week. It's a bit strange to see the flamboyant Frenchman heading the seedings and it's hard to know what to expect this week but he made a fine start to the tournament, dispatching Ryan Sweeting and Dmitry Tursunov in straight sets. Monfils has never won a hard-court title before but he looked in form yesterday, smashing 17 aces against Sweeting.

He will have his toughest test so far tonight against sixth seed Tipsarevic who also won a pair of matches in straight sets yesterday. Much has been written about the chances of Grigor Dimitrov in the future but he was no match for the Serb, going down 6-2, 6-4.

Monfils is 3-3 head-to-heads against Tipsarevic but crucially he's won the last two. He prevailed 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 on the way to last year's US Open quarter-finals and claimed an impressive straight sets win in the Davis Cup final in December as Tipsarevic struggled to deal with the pressure of playing the opening rubber.

John Isner vs. Viktor Troicki

John Isner will try and serve his way past third seed Viktor Troicki in today's semi-finals of the Legg Mason Classic.

Isner was involved in another late night struggle against close friend James Blake in Thursday's third round. The duo are doubles partners, golf buddies and regular dinner companions on the tour but such is the luck of the draw, they have been paired up against each other twice in the past few weeks.

It's been desperately close each time with Isner just about prevailing 7-6(0), 1-6, 7-6(4). Erratic from the back of the court, he just about clung onto his serve in the decider. Blake missed a few golden opportunities to break and his frustration was evident to all at the end.

"I don't like playing friends, period," Isner commented afterwards. "But when you do play them, you want to do it deep in the tournament. It was just unfortunate that we drew each other pretty early on."

Troicki has been on the verge of big things over the past year. He had Novak Djokovic on the ropes at the US Open and was in a commanding position against Andy Murray at the French, but he just hasn't been able to polish them off.

Many reckon he'll be one to watch over the next few weeks and he's looked the part so far in Washington, easing past Kevin Anderson 6-3, 6-3.

This will be a tough one for Isner as Troicki has dealt with his serve pretty well in the past, winning both their previous matches