Andujar Upsets Montanes To Reach Final

© El KhaouaPablo Andujar reached his second ATP World Tour Final.

World No. 69 Pablo Andujar upset top seed and fellow Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-4, 6-4 to reach the final of the Grand Prix Hassan II 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 tennis tournament in Casablanca, Morocco.  Andujar advanced to his second ATP World Tour final (Bucharest 2010) with his ninth match win of the year, claiming his first win in three career meetings with World No. 24 Montanes, who reached the Casablanca final in 2007.

Both players struggled to hold serve, with Adujar facing 16 break points (saving 13) throughout the match, with Montanes conceding five of 13 break chances on his serve.

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Andujar, who is just two places below his career-high mark of No. 67 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, will play fifth-seeded Italian Potito Starace, who defeated eighth-seeded Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-1, 6-7(3), 7-6(2).

"I played very well today. It was a difficult match since he knows exactly how to play against me," Andujar said.

About playing Starace in the final, Andujar said, "He is a great player who loves clay. It will be a hard match since I have never won against him. I went match by match during the whole week without ever thinking about the final. I have nothing to lose and I'm looking forward to the final."

"I had two tough match in a row," said Starace, who broke serve five times against Hanescu. "Today I had chances to win in two sets. But then Hanescu came back and I started making a lot of mistakes. Luckily I managed to win in three."
 
About playing Andujar, Starace added, "He's a good player and he has been beaten some strong players this week including Montanes in the semi-final. It will be a difficult match and as always in a final everything is possible."