Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ejects Marin Cilic to reach the second round – Western & Southern Open 2011
Brilliant run continues for the new world number 10, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, who routines Croatia’s number one tennis player, Marin Cilic, in the opening round of Western and Southern Financial Group Masters on Tuesday afternoon.
Being played on the outdoor hard courts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, near Cincinnati, United States, the contest witnessed sheer dominance of the hard hitting Frenchman to seal the contest in straight sets 6-3,
6-4. Tsonga took one hour and eighteen minutes of play to seal victory against the unseeded Croat and moved into the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters Series event.
Tsonga finally avenged his defeat, which he face at the hands of Cilic back in 2007, when the Croatian outplayed him 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament at London. The French registered his 33rd
victory of the running ATP season to level the head-to-head series with Cilic at 1-1.
26-year-old Tsonga has been in his prime form in the recent few tournaments and has defeated Roger Federer in two successive ATP events to clinch the 10 spot in the world rankings. The French had to withdraw from the semi-finals
of the Masters event last week in Montreal due to his arm injury but faced no trouble in belting powerful strokes in the matchup against Cilic. Tsonga’s forehand worked for him to perfection and the Frenchman fired nine fiery aces in the matchup, while dropping
just six points on serve.
“I didn’t play the last two days because of my arm, and this morning at the warm-up I was feeling really good. It was a really fluid match. Everything was easy for me today, including my serve,” told Tsonga after winning the contest.
The hard-hitting Tsonga banged 61 per cent of his serve on target and magnificently reeled off 27 out of 28 first serve points to come out as the winner. The French serve remained unbroken in the entire matchup, with Cilic utterly
failing to craft a single break point in the whole contest. Tsonga seized a vital serve break at 4-3 to close out the opening set and then the unseeded Croat totally lost the plot when he dropped serve early in the second set. Tsonga sealed victory at 6-4,
getting into the second round of Cincinnati Masters to meet the American qualifier, Alex Bogomolov, who cleared the opening round by winning his clash against his fellow compatriot, Robby Ginepri, on Monday.
Tags: