Juan Monaco of Argentina celebrates a point against Mardy Fish.
Juan «Pico» Monaco celebrated his 28th birthday by booking a spot in the Sony Ericsson Open semi-finals with a 6-1 6-3 win over US Mardy Fish on Thursday.
Monaco, who beat US Andy Roddick in the previous round, will meet the winner of Thursday’s other quarter-final between world number one Novak Djokovic and Spain’s David Ferrer.
Monaco’s serve proved too much for eighth seed Fish, who did not begin to cause problems for his opponent until breaking to go 3-3 in the second set.
But Monaco, who turned 28 on Thursday, closed out the match within one hour and 22 minutes and was clearly delighted to have given himself a chance of reaching what would be the biggest final of his career.
«I meant every shot that I played, I did. It was a perfect match for me,» said Monaco, who has won four ATP Tour events.
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