Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Vs Daniel Brands; Semi-Final Preview – Erste Bank Open 2011
Erste Bank Open 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 event, finally moves on to its final stages, the semi-final and the final. With the top four players in the round of 4, Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, top seed for the event and world
No.9, goes on to play his semis stage fixture against Daniel Brands, German world No.182 at Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria.
Battling out on hard indoor courts, this would be their second head-to-head fixture. The first match they play was at French Open 2010 first round. Though on clay, Brands gave the Frenchman a tough 5 set mat to win. The disparity
in ranking is surely a big advantage for the Frenchman and also Tsonga had improved his play as well.
Comparatively, Bands has had an astounding run in the event with a six match unbeaten run counting the qualifiers stages as well. Ousting Martin Fischer and Radek Stepanek was a great achievement for the 24-year-old and would for
sure boost up his play.
However, for the world No.182 to oust the world No.9 Frenchman seems a blurry prediction. Although Brands has an offensive playing style he still needs to lessen the number of unforced errors. Standing at 6’5”, German right-hander
needs to prove much more agile than the fiery top seed.
Other than that, Brands is quite capable of serving blazing aces and has a remarkably well maintained first serve percentage. Considering his previous match against Steve Darcis, another strong competitor he ousted, his winnings
on return was as good as his win on service. Nevertheless, his pressure exertion power is yet to be determined.
On the other hand, Tsonga has been blowing off stunners in this season as he overcame the top players of the world. Beating Roger Federer and almost doing away with Novak Djokovic did increase the level of the Frenchman. Recently
Tsonga has bagged the Metz Cup at home and more over, on hard indoor courts.
Known for his lunging volleys and rolling all over the court just to play up to his best, Tsonga is considered one of the toughest players in the game. Tsonga's serve is one of his strong points, combining both slice and speed,
so making it possible for him to create and win effortless points, such as an ace or a one-two-punch.
Due to the action of his serve, which is radically shortened, he does very well to create as much power as he does, generating thunderous speed. Forehand is also one of his best shots. However, the most interesting thing is the
Frenchman’s play is that he plays both single handed and double handed backhands, allowing him to slice or power up his backhand drives.
Regardless of the fact that the Frenchman is much more capable of winning the fixture, Brands, if and only if performs the same way he did in his previous fixtures, he might be able to put up a tough fight yet there is a minimal
chance for the German to take over the mighty Frenchman at this stage.
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