Andy Murray beats Tsonga to book a date with Nadal in the Wimbledon Semifinals
Britain’s only hope in Wimbledon, Andy Murray, fought his way into the semifinals of the Grand Slam after a testing match against France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the Centre Court.
The number one British player was made to work extremely hard by Tsonga, but he managed to pull through in 4 sets, with the scores of 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 and 6-2. The match lasted 168 minutes.
It was looking dangerous for Murray in the 2nd set when Tsonga was on the verge of a 2 set lead in a tense tie break. However, lack of concentration from Tsonga let Murray back into the match, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Murray will next square off against the Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the semifinals, who recently reclaimed the number one spot from Federer after winning his 5th French Open in Paris.
A jubilant Murray after the match said that it sure was a tough match, and the first couple of sets were sort of clumsy, adding that both of them had chances during the first two sets but failed to take them, and that is what led them to tie break. He added that Tsonga was very aggressive in the early stages and he had to depend on his defensive game at that time, and he remained patient instead of panicking.
Murray made it to the Wimbledon semifinal last year, but was beaten by America’s Andy Roddick, and things are anything but tougher for him this time, with the world number one Rafael Nadal waiting for him in the final 4. However, he still remains confident of becoming the first British player to make it to the Wimbledon final since 1938, when Bunny Austin did the same.
Murray entered the court carrying the expectations of the whole of Britain, who were hoping that maybe this will be the year when finally a British player will win the Grand Slam. There was immense optimism all around, especially since the 6 time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer had also been knocked out the same day by Tomas Berdych.
Andy Murray, before the start of the match, had been the only player to have not yet dropped a set in the tournament, and the fact that he had beaten Tsonga in both of their previous two encounters must have also given both him and his fans some heart.
Tsonga, on the other hand, fought bravely against 32 seed Julien Benneteau in the fourth round, defeating him 6-1, 6-4, 3-6, and 6-1 in a four set encounter.
It was all set to be a match between two players with contrasting styles of play; Tsonga is all attack while Murray can dig in deep when he needs to.
With almost half an hour gone in the match, the first set was at 4-4, and Murray had a good chance of breaking Tsonga’s serve, but Murray’s return went wide on the break point and the chance was gone.
Then it was Tsonga’s turn to get a break point in the very next game. Murray had to work extra hard, and 2 strenuous points from the volley enabled him to keep his serve.
With no breaks in the set, the set went to a tie break and Murray fell behind 4-2 after losing 2 serve points. Tsonga took the set 7-6.
The 24 year old knew he had done almost everything right in the first half and only needed to make good use of break points, and that is precisely what he did in the next game. He broke Tsonga in the very first game of the 2nd set, forcing Tsonga to go wide, and he hit his return into the net to give Murray a break.
Murray was looking on song with 3-0 up in the 2nd set, but lack of concentration made him slip up, and numerous errors allowed Tsonga back with a break of serve.
Once again, the set went to a tie break, and Tsonga had the momentum hence he took the lead in the tie break. However, at 5-4, Murray roared back and Tsonga made an error of judgment and let a lobbed shot drop inside the baseline that eventually cost him the set.
It was simply once way traffic from then on, as Murray had by then gained immense confidence, and he raced through the final 2 sets, breaking Tsonga twice in both sets to take the final 2 sets 6-2 and 6-2 and wrap up the match.
The semifinal, though, may be the acid test for Andy Murray, as he faces the one man Spanish Armada Nadal next.
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