Teenage Australian tennis star Bernard Tomic beat France's Gael Monfils 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2) Thursday to book a place in the final of the Kooyong Classic, a warm-up event ahead of the Australian Open. The 19-year-old, who is tipped to fill the shoes of ageing compatriot Lleyton Hewitt, will face the winner of the other semifinal between American Mardy Fish and Austrian Jurgen Melzer. “I'm getting confidence this week for the Open and hope to carry it through,” said the world No. 37 from Queensland, who Wednesday also claimed victory over top-ten ranked Czech Tomas Berdych. The teenager last year became the youngest man to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals since Boris Becker in 1986, and has made a strong start in 2012, reaching last week's Brisbane semis before losing to Britain's Andy Murray. “We came here for a good week and that's what I'm having,” he said. Monfils, the world No. 15, said he was troubled by a recurrent knee problem and the changing weather added to his discomfort. “I need to take care of my knee all of the time, I can hurt it with my movement,” the Frenchman said. “It was also cold at the start and then hot and my knee doesn't really like that.” Rochus, Kohlschreiber in semis Belgian veteran Olivier Rochus rallied from a break down in the third set to beat Benoit Paire's 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4) and end the French qualifier's giant-killing run at the Heineken Open. The 30-year-old Rochus, a former finalist in Auckland, trailed 4-2 in the deciding set but recovered to win in a tiebreak, ousting Paire who had beaten former world No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero and fourth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela in his first two main draw matches. Paire sent down 21 aces on Thursday and dominated at times but the dogged Rochus kept fighting, winning the match in 2-1/2 hours to set up a semifinal against eighth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber. Kohlschreiber, the 2008 champion, reached the Auckland semifinals for the third time with 7-6 (5), 6-4 win over second-seeded Nicolas Almagro. “I think after the rain we both played much better than before,” Rochus said. “I think even if I had lost I couldn't have played any better. We both played 100 percent and from the baseline we both played to our best level.” Kohlschreiber took the first set from world No. 10 Almagro in 53 minutes. He then broke Almagro in the last game of the second set to clinch the match. Third-seeded Fernando Verdasco was due to play his doubles partner Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and top-seeded David Ferrer was to play Colombia's Alejandro Falla later Thursday.
