Ivan Ljubicic undoes Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets at the 2011 Monte Carlo Masters
Croatian tennis pro Ivan Ljubicic triumphed over seeded pro Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in straight sets at the 2011 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Monte Carlo just minutes ago, defeating his French opponent 7-6(2), 6-4 to lock a place for himself at the second round of the event. The match was over in just a little under two hours and ten minutes.
It was not a particularly difficult victory for Ljubicic, who is currently ranked World Number 40. Despite the fact that Tsonga was seeded twelfth at the tournament, Ljubicic played a handy game against the World Number 17. At 32 years old, he was able to defeat his 25-year-old opponent with remarkably little trouble. Ljubicic scored five aces during the match, and broke Tsonga three of six times to take a lead in the match. He also committed three double faults, a mistake which was not made by his French opponent. Despite this, the pro took 72 per cent of his first serve points for a total of 39 out of 54 points. This helped Ljubicic, to win a satisfactory 52 per cent of the total points, which led to his victory over Tsonga by six points. The match concluded with a 7-6(2), 6-4 win for Ljubicic.
The two players have competed against each other four times before this. They divided those meetings evenly, with both players winning two matches apiece. However, their head to head record has now shifted in Ljubicic’s favour to 3-2. Their most recent meeting prior to this one was earlier in 2011 at the Rotterdam semi-final, where Tsonga prevailed in straight sets.
Ivan Ljubicic will now face either fifth seed Tomas Berdych, or Belgian tennis player Olivier Rochus in the third round of the 2011 Monte Carlo Masters depending on the outcome of their second round match.
This was the second Monte Carlo second round match played today, with the first one comprising of Roger Federer versus Philipp Kohlschreiber. Federer undid the German pro handily in straight sets to reach the third round of the tournament.
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