Jo-Wilfried Tsonga battles past Julien Benneteau into the third round – BNP Paribas Masters 2012
Home favourite, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, earned a tough win against his 37th ranked compatriot, Julien Benneteau, in the second round of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. This indoor hard court tournament is the last ATP
World Tour Masters 1000 event of the season.
Tsonga captured the opening set convincingly but dropped the second one and then clinched the decider with the closest of margins, winning the match with a final score line of 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(2) after a battle of two hours and 24
minutes.
First three games went with serve, taking the score to 2-1 in favour of Tsonga. The higher ranked French player struck in the fourth and consolidated on it to attain a 4-1 lead. Benneteau could not hold his serve again in the eighth
game, losing it 2-6.
In the second set, both players broke each other once in the opening four games and levelled the proceedings at 2-2. Benneteau hit another blow to Tsonga in the fifth and held his next serve to move ahead 4-2. The 30-year-old did
not allow his country’s best player to make a comeback, clinching it 6-4.
There was no breakthrough made by either of the two players in the first seven games of the decider, taking the score to 4-3 in favour of Tsonga. The world number seven struck at that moment to gain a 5-3 lead but he could not
serve it out on the following one, losing two in a row to take the score to 5-5. The subsequent two games were held and the set was taken to a tie-breaker. They went on equal terms till 5-5 but then Tsonga took his game to the next level, capturing five back
to back points and grabbing it 7-6(2).
The Gingins, Switzerland resident bombarded a total of 15 aces and captured 45 of the 62 points on them in the match. Tsonga was erratic on his second deliveries, as he lost 19 of the 40 points on them including four on double
faults.
The French star said while talking to the reporters after the match, “There was a lot of tension, a lot of intensity, a very complicated first round for me. I fought until the end. I hung in there, and I'm happy for the way I pulled
it out because it was not easy.”
Tsonga will take on the 11th seed, Nicolas Almagro, or Albert Ramos in the third round.
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