TSONGA BEATS MELZER

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has defeated Jurgen Melzer of Austria in the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters. Tsonga won the match in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-0.

The tall Frenchman didn’t take even an hour to defeat his opponent. The match was finished in just 57 minutes. Tsonga cruised into the quarter finals with this win.

Melzer is an experienced player and at one point of time, he was in top 10 in the world rankings. So, he was expected to battle hard against Tsonga, but, that wasn’t the case to be. The Austrian was outsmarted in both the sets and he managed to win just 3 games in the match.

This was the 3^rd match between these two players and Tsonga has ended up on the winning side in all those three matches.

In the first set, Tsonga broke Melzer’s serve in the 4^th game to take a lead of 3-1. He enhanced that lead with a serve hold in the 5^th game.

In the next 3 games, both the players held their serve and at the end of the 8^th game, Melzer was down by 3-5.

To prevent Tsonga from finishing off the set in the 9^th game, the Austrian player had to sneak a breakthrough, but, he couldn’t do that. Tsonga held his serve in the 9^th game and won the first set by 6-3.

In the second set, Tsonga was in a hurry. He just didn’t let his opponent settle in. He blew him away with some great forehand shots and secured a bagel to wrap up the match.

In the quarter final match, Tsonga will face the Swiss player Stanislas Wawrinka who made his way into the quarter finals with a straight set victory over Andy Murray.

TSONGA THROUGH

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has defeated Viktor Troicki of Serbia in the second round of the Sony Open on Saturday. Tsonga won the match in the straight sets by 7-6(6), 6-3.

This was Tsonga’s 6^th match against Troicki. In the earlier 5 matches, Troicki had defeated Tsonga 3 times.

In the 3^rd round, Tsonga will face Jarkko Nieminen of Finland. Nieminen secured a berth in the third round by defeating Martin Klizan of Slovakia.

In the very first game of the match, Tsonga’s serve was broken. Troicki served out the next game with ease and Tsonga was down by 0-2.

The Frenchman equalized with a serve break in the 6^th game. Both the players held their serve in the next two games and the scorecard was showing 4-4 before the start of the 9^th game.

In the 9^th game, Tsonga committed a couple of unforced errors at a crucial moment which helped Troicki in getting his second breakthrough in the match.

However, the Italian player couldn’t maintain that lead and dropped his serve in the 10^th game which equalized the scores again.

In the next couple of games, there were no serve breaks which meant that the scores were tied and there would be a tie breaker.

In the tie breaker, Troicki couldn’t handle the pressure well. A couple of loose shots by him at the end allowed Tsonga to seal the set.

Just like the first set, there was a serve break in the first game of the second set as well, but, this time it was Troicki who dropped his serve. He was leading by 40-15 at one point of time, but, Tsonga pulled him back from that stage and played a few fantastic backhand shots to get a breakthrough.

The next 7 games went with the serve and Tsonga was ahead by 5-3 at the end of the 8^th game. The Frenchman smashed a couple of winners in the 9^th game and finished off the match with another breakthrough.

TSONGA NETS WIN

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has defeated Fabio Fognini of Italy in the third round of the Australian Open. Tsonga won the match in the straight sets by 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. With this win, Tsonga has secured a berth in the final 16.

Tsonga was struggling a bit at the start and he made quite a few unforced errors in the first set, but, in the next couple of sets, he was on fire. He played some extra ordinary shots and didn’t give his opponent any opportunity to bounce back in the match.

In the first set, Tsonga had a poor start. He dropped his serve in the second game and lost the first couple of games in a row to get trailed by 0-2. The Frenchman bounced back with a serve break in the third game and then, he levelled the scores by holding his serve in the fourth game.

Tsonga broke Fognini’s serve again in the fifth game and then, with a serve hold in the next game, he made the score 4-2 in his favour.

There were no breakthroughs in the next three games and Tsonga was ahead by 5-4 at the end of the ninth game. He had a chance to wrap up the set by serving out the 10^th game, but, he failed in doing so. He dropped his serve in the 10^th game the scores got equalized.

However, Tsonga didn’t let the set drift away from him. He got a breakthrough in the 11^th game and then, he served out the 12^th game to win the first set by 7-5.

In the next two sets, Tsonga played wonderfully. He broke Fognini’s service twice in the second set and thrice in the third set and won both the sets by the same margin of 6-4 to finish off the match.

In the next round, Tsonga will take on his compatriot Richard Gasquet.

TSONGA THROUGH IN CHINA

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has defeated Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the first round of the China Open. Tsonga won the match by 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(3). It was a very close game and went all the way down to the wire. But, Tsonga kept himself composed towards the end of the match and managed to reach the second round. This was the 4^th match between these two players and Tsonga is yet to lose a match against Istomin. It took the Frenchman a bit less than 2 hours to knock Istomin out of the competition.

In the opening set, both the players held their service in the first two games and the scores were levelled at 1-1. Istomin gave Tsonga the first blow in the third game and then, held his service in the fourth game to take a lead of 3-1. The Uzbek player didn’t let Tsonga come back into the set after that. He maintained the lead till the end of the set to win it by 6-4.

In the second set, Tsonga was on fire. Istomin held his service in the first game, but, that was the only game to be won by him in the set. Thereafter, it was a Tsonga show. He broke Istomin’s service thrice and won the next six games on the trot to win the second set by 6-1.

In the final set, both the players held their entire serves and the scores were tied at 6-6 at the end of the 12^th game. Tsonga had got two breakpoints, but, he didn’t manage to capitalize on any of them. But, in the tie breaker, the Frenchman played superbly and won the match.

Tsonga will take on Nikolay Davydenko in his next match.

Tsonga pessimistic over chances

Most Tennis players would dream of winning a grand slam in front of a home crowd, however Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has already ruled out his chances of victory at the French open this year as the twenty seven year old struggled to claim a place in the competitions second round after the Frenchman came from a set down to beat Andrey Kuznetsov in which the current world number five rallied to win the remaining three sets only losing six games in the rest of the match-up.

Tsonga’s pessimism has been criticised by French tennis legend Yannick Noah, who was the last French man to win at the Roland Garros Stadium, who believes that you can’t win if you don’t believe you can.  Tsonga may however be considered pretty realistic with his best performance in Paris being a fourth round defeat in 2010, and with Djovokivic and Nadal on top of their games and the tennis world there seems little room for a surprise victory for the French number one. Tsonga certainly has the talent to win a grand slam particularly at Wimbledon or the Australian open where he was a finalist in 2008.

A victory in Paris would make Tsonga the second Frenchman post-war to win the French Open, which would seem odd for a country which has consistently produced high calibre tennis players with such a strong tennis culture which is heavily funded and developed. Only Spain could boast such a successful tennis system, yet the successes of French tennis player have been mixed at best, perhaps suggesting that winners are born and not bought. Either way only time will tell if Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has what it takes to secure a grand slam victory and especially if he can do it in his home country.

FOCUS ON TSONGA

Born in Le Man, in France, the French tennis player was born in the year 1985. Jo- Wilfried Tsonga, a member of the Tennis  Club de Paris has consistently been ranking high at number 5 position  which he achieved in the month of February in 2012. The point that questions everyone is that how Jo- Wilfried Tsonga managed to come up the ranking table and be so high. It all happened during the 2008 Australian Open when he was a non seeded player but defeated all seeded players reaching the semi finals against Rafael Nadal. Jo- Wilfried Tsonga took this opportunity to prove his worth and defeat Rafael Nadal reaching the finals of the tournament against Novak Djokovic.  He performed commendably but lost in the finals.

Jo – Wilfried Tsonga once again played well and performed by reaching the finals of the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals but again unfortunately lost to five time champion Roger Federer.  Jo- Wilfried Tsonga participated in the 2012 Open 13 where he received a bye in the first round itself. He the went on to reach the quarter finals where he played against Roger Vasselin and even defeated him.  The semi finals of that tournament was the most interesting match to look forward to with Jo- Wilfried Tsonga going against Del Potro both fighting equally hard for a place in the finals. However the tournament ended with Del Potro defeating Llodra and winning the tournament.

In the 2012 Qatar Open, Jo- Wilfried Tsonga was the number 3 seed in the tournament.  The first few rounds were very easy for him and he got past his opponents very easily. Surprisingly the quarter finals too were a cake walkwhen he finally met Federer on the semi finals. However Federer withdrew at the last moment, giving Tsonga a win in the finals getting the title of the 2012 Qatar Open.