Tennis-Monfils kicks off busy French day with win over Baghdatis

By Larry Fine NEW YORK, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Tenth seed Gael Monfils motored into the U.S. Open quarter-finals with a straight-sets dismissal of Marcos Baghdatis on Sunday at the year's last grand slam championship. Monfils, who has enjoyed a run of success this hard court season, maintained his impressive form with a 6-3 6-2 6-3 romp that kicked off a busy day for the French men's contingent at Flushing Meadows. In later fourth-round matches on a breezy day at the U.S. National Tennis Center, ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was taking on American 26th seed Jack Sock, and 24th-seeded Lucas Pouille was facing 14-times grand slam winner Rafa Nadal. Monfils, playing a familiar foe, was well prepared for his round of 16 test and executed his game plan. "He's a good friend, I know him for a long time," said the 30-year-old Monfils. "We had many battles in juniors and we have many also on the senior tour. "I had to be very consistent with my serve because he's a pretty good returner. I was very fast on the baseline, so I guess everything was fine today." Monfils, twice before a U.S. Open quarter-finalist, served up nine aces and gave himself a cushion with six service breaks against the Cypriot, who put only 36 percent of his first serves in play. In the last couple of months, the Frenchman has posted a 17-2 record, winning the biggest ATP World Tour title of his career at the 500 level tournament in Washington, reaching the semi-finals at the ATP Masters 1000 in Toronto and advancing to the quarter-finals at the Rio Olympics. The 31-year-old Baghdatis, runner-up this season in Dubai and a semi-finalist in Newport, was making his first fourth-round showing in a grand slam since the 2009 Australian Open. Monfils will play either fourth-seeded Nadal or compatriot Pouille for a place in the semi-finals. (Editing by Rex Gowar)