2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga vs. Michael Llodra, preview
In an all French clash, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga takes on compatriot Michael Llodra as the pair kicks off the second round at the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament on Wednesday.
Ranked eighteenth in the world, Tsonga is playing in his second tour level event for the year. He started his run at the 2011 Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Doha as the third seed.
Moving past two Spaniards and one Ukrainian, Tsonga made his way into the semi-finals where he lost to eventual champion, Roger Federer.
The following week, he competed at the exhibition in Kooyong, the AAMI Classic as the sixth seed. However, he exited the event after only one match losing to Jurgen Melzer.
Earlier he had competed in another exhibition event at Abu Dhabi, the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, though he was forced out of the event in the first round by Robin Soderling.
A semi-finalist at the 2010 Australian Open, the Frenchman’s run in the Grand Slam this year was comparatively disappointing. Playing as the thirteenth seed this year; Tsonga made his way into the third round defeating Philipp Petzschner and Andreas Seppi.
However, a gruelling five setter with Alexandr Dolgopolov forced his exit from the event. Failing to defend his semi-final points, Tsonga dropped five places in the rankings.
Playing in his second year at Rotterdam this week, Tsonga makes his way into the second round after doing away with Bulgarian qualifier, Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets. Losing only eight games, Tsonga registered a twin set score of 6-4, 6-4 against Dimitrov.
The Frenchman’s career best at the event so far is his debut quarterfinal run in 2009. He was ousted from the event then by world number one, Rafael Nadal.
Playing his countryman Llodra, the pair is meeting for the third time on the courts. The head to head score lies at 2-0 in Tsonga’s favour.
Both matches are being played on hard courts, giving Tsonga the psychological edge that he has beaten Llodra on this surface before. He also enjoys the advantage of being ranked slightly higher than Llodra. The pair had last met in their first round match
at the 2010 Dubai event.
Ranked 22nd in the world, Llodra is playing in his first tour level event of the year. Coming from the Davis Cup final in 2010 December, Llodra enjoyed almost a month break before coming into the opening Grand Slam, Australian Open.
Though his performance suggested he should have been practising more. Seeded twenty-third in the event, Llodra was ousted in the second round by the hard hitting Canadian, Milos Raonic.
Unlike his compatriot, Llodra is somewhat of a veteran when it comes to the Rotterdam event. Playing in his fifth year this week, Llodra already holds a title here having won it back in 2007. Llodra had defeated Robin Soderling to clinch the title here.
However, the last two years here, Llodra has failed to move past the second round.
Llodra started his fifth run here as he took on Nikolay Davydenko in their first round match. Enjoying a straight, yet not so simple, sets victory Llodra registered a 6-3, 7-6(4) win against the Russian.
Prediction: Tsonga enjoys the edge in every possible sense whether it is a better skill set, the fitness factor, or, the statistical plus. Although, straight sets might be pushing it a little, Tsonga is expected to move past his compatriot
to make it into the final eight.
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