Jo-Wilfried Tsonga expected to defend his title at Moselle Open 2012 – Tennis News
World number seven, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, is bidding strongly for defending his championship title at the 2012 Moselle Open at his home. He is currently placed in the quarter-finals of the ATP World Tour 250 event in Metz, France, and is rated as the strongest contender for winning the title for the second successive time.
The top seeded French power house received a bye in the opening round and registered a thumping straight sets victory, 6-3, 6-3, over his fellow compatriot, Clement Reix, in the second round of the tournament on Wednesday. He had no real troubles to dispose of the underdog qualifier and marched into the quarter-final round in an assertive fashion.
The Moselle Open is not just any other ATP 250 tournament but it holds a significant importance to Tsonga for making into the season-ending grand finale in London, the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. He is currently at number eight in the race to London but he has to strengthen his position to sustain his current spot. Other talented young competitors, including Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, Nicolas Almagro of Spain and John Isner of the USA, have a close points’ difference with him. Any of these men can easily topple Tsonga from the eighth spot in the list after winning a couple of titles and can replace him in the elite circuit-ending event.
The 27-year-old French has barely managed to bag one ATP title throughout this season but rallied past the quarter-final and semi-final stages of most of the events to remain in the Top-10 rankings. Tsonga is having a 42-17 winning record for the year and intends to improve his stats in Metz.
Apparently, there is no one in the Moselle open playing field to truly challenge the abilities of Tsonga. The second seeded contestant in the tournament is, Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, holding the 18th spot in the ATP rankings. All other players are ranked way below him and he will have a perfect opportunity to bag the triumph in a convincing manner. However, his fellow compatriot, Gael Monfils, is making a comeback to the professional circuit and might post some threat to Tsonga’s title defence campaign.
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