Jeremy Chardy stuns Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the second round brawl – Rogers Cup 2012
A stunning outcome was witnessed at the Rogers Cup on Wednesday, as the world number six, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, crashed out of the second round encounter in a pathetic manner. The third seed hot favourite was upset by his
47th ranked fellow compatriot, Jeremy Chardy, in straight sets, 4-6, 6-7(4).
Tsonga has been in great form throughout this season and was among the few hot favourites for winning the Masters Series event in Toronto, Canada. He was coming of a successful Olympic campaign last week after winning a silver
medal in the doubles event, while reaching quarter-final draw of the singles category. After such high quality performance in the mega event, his early fall in the Rogers Cup was nothing less than a shocker for the tennis fans.
The other Frenchman, Chardy, had suffered a loss at the hands of Tsonga back in 2009 at Johannesburg, South Africa, but came out with an absolute blinder on Wednesday to level the head-to-head scores at 1-1. He was phenomenal in
the opening set, giving minimum opportunities to his third seed rival and kept striking winners at will to get the upper hand. Clinching the opening set put Chardy in the driving seat but Tsonga would not let the contest go his way that easily. The world number
six regrouped in the second set and posted a solid resistance to drag the set into a tie-breaker round. However, he failed to sustain his impetus in the decider and gifted away the matchup to the lower-ranked opponent in the end.
Despite of a mere serve precision of 55 percent, Chardy banged in 10 thudding aces and secured 34 out of 42 first serve points en route to victory. Tsonga closely followed him in the serve stats but the vital difference lied in
the break points conversion. The third seed Frenchman had three crucial chances to break Chardy’s serve in the match but he frittered away all the priceless opportunities to finish on the losing side in the end. The 47th ranked French crafted a
lone break point in the opening set and converted it in time to edge past Tsonga and register the biggest upset of the tournament so far.
Up next for Chardy is the unseeded Spaniard, Marcel Granollers, in the third round of the Rogers Cup. The Spanish contender stunned the 15th seed German, Florian Mayer, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, in the second round
to book a date with Chardy.
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