Jo-Wilfried Tsonga downs Marcos Baghdatis to reach final – If Stockholm Open 2012
Top seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, moved closer to qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals, as he defeated Cypriot player, Marcos Baghdatis, in the If Stockholm Open semi-finals in Sweden on Saturday.
The Frenchman was leading 6-4, 4-6, 5-2, when Baghdatis forfeited the match due to left groin strain. The contest lasted for an hour and 49 minutes.
Tsonga and Baghdatis made a steady start, holding their serve in the first nine games to take the score to 5-4 in favour of the Frenchman. Serving to stay in the set at that time, Baghdatis could not hold and threw away the first
set 4-6.
Second set went with serve in the opening eight games, levelling the proceedings at 4-4. Baghdatis succeeded in clinching a breakthrough in the ninth and capitalised on it to win 6-4.
Baghdatis was being troubled with a left groin strain in the second set. The Cypriot lost opening three games to go down 0-3. Baghdatis could not make a comeback and kept on trailing till 2-5. At that moment, the Cypriot decided
to quit the match, as he was unfit to play due to the injury.
Tsonga relied on his blistering first serves to win most of the points, bombarding 11 aces on Baghdatis and capturing 45 of the 57 first delivery points. The 27-year-old saved five of the six break points he faced and converted
two of the three he received in the match.
The Frenchman said while talking to the reporters at the end of the match, "It was a very good match, so I'm sad it ended like this. I'm very pleased, I played very good tennis again, very aggressive with some good shots."
Tsonga will lock horns with the second seeded Czech player, Tomas Berdych, in the final.
On playing the Czech star in the title match, Tsonga added, "We played last week and it was a very close game. We both want to play our best tennis tomorrow. He plays very aggressively and I will try to focus on my game. If it
works, then I will have a good chance of winning. I know I can still improve and I hope I will play well tomorrow."
The Frenchman trails 1-2 in the FedEx ATP Head2Head series against Berdych.
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