2011 Qatar ExxonMobil Open: Thursday Singles Review of Opening Two Clashes
The 2011 Doha event saw four quarterfinals for the day as play wrapped up on Thursday. Set at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex, tennis superstars are currently participating at the 2011 Qatar ExxonMobil Open.
Kicking off the quarterfinal round at the event was world number two Roger Federer as he played Serb Viktor Troicki in a seeded battle. Seeded second, Federer has so far registered a no set loss record at the event though the run has been anything but smooth.
Pitted against qualifier Thomas Schooler, Federer locked into a head to head battle with the Dutch in the first set eventually winning it on tiebreaker at 7-3. He then wrapped it up in the second set with a comfortable 6-3 win. Federer met compatriot Marco
Chiudinelli in the second round and only after a hard fought 7-6(5), 7-5 victory was Federer able to move ahead in the event.
Meeting Troicki for the second time in his career, Federer was able to cruise to a 2-0 lead in the head to head after enjoying a comfortable straight set victory over the Serb. Committing no double faults and losing only eleven points on service, Federer
was able to clinch a 6-2, 6-2 victory in sixty five minutes.
After his victory over the Serb, Federer said, “Viktor was obviously coming off a fantastic win with Serbia in the Davis Cup, so I knew it was going to be difficult and that’s why I had that extra focus. I was able to play really well tonight and I’m very
happy. I thought it was very concentrated performance. I really thought I saw the ball a bit better. From my side, I'm really happy the way I was able to keep Troicki on the back foot, make him feel like he didn't know what was coming his way.”
Federer moved into the semis for the fifth time in his six appearances at Qatar Open, winning the title on two of these runs i.e. in 2005 and 2006.
Following the world number two on the courts was his now semis opponent, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Having opened the event with a match against Ruben Hidalgo and then defeating him 6-2, 6-0, Tsonga had moved into the second round to meet wildcard entrant Sergei
Bubka. The French set up a quarterfinal clash with Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez after defeating Bubka in straight sets of 6-2, 6-4.
In their fourth court meeting, Tsonga fought long and hard before eventually increasing his lead against Garcia-Lopez to 3-1. In a match that lasted for two hours, both sets went into tiebreakers. Serving eleven aces and committing only one double fault,
Tsonga was able to defeat the Spaniard 7-6(4), 7-6(9).
In a rematch of the 2011 Australian Open semi-final, Tsonga moves ahead to meet Federer.
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