Intro:

Top seed Janko Tipsarevic survived a real scare to reach the semi-finals of the Mercedes Cup, while Juan Monaco, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Thomaz Bellucci all came through their quarter-finals in straight sets on Friday.

Script:

The quarter finals of the Mercedes Cup took place in the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart on Friday.

Second seed Juan Monaco made light work of his opening set against Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia.

The Argentine won in straight sets 6-1, 7-5 to book his place in the final four.

Top seed Janko Tipsarevic faced a much sterner test in the form of another German player Bjorn Phau.

Phau edged a tight first set taking the tie break 8-6 to putting his opponent under real pressure.

There was still plenty of work to be done, Tipsarevic had to rally from 0-40 in his final service game before claiming his 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 win to get to the semis.

Up against Tipsarevic for a place in the final is Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil.

He secured a total of five breaks of serve en route to a 6-4 6-1 win over Cedrik-Marcel Stebe in the last quarter final of the day.