Jo-Wilfried Tsonga fails to delight his home crowd – Tennis News
World number eight, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, had a remarkable season-ending last year but couldn’t replicate the similar sort of performance in Paris this time round. The 27-year-old home favourite finished as the finalist at the BNP Paribas Masters in 2011 but fell to the might of the fifth ranked Spaniard, David Ferrer, in the quarter-final last Friday.
Tsonga was seeded at number six in the tournament and was expected to reach at least the title match of the Paris Masters event. He was deprived of glory last year by the Swiss Maestro, Roger Federer, who outclassed him in straight sets to clinch gold. With Federer pulling out from this edition of the coveted Masters 1000 event, and Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray falling out early, Tsonga could have easily revived glory in front of his home crowd. The only superior-ranked opponent left in the event was Ferrer and the Frenchman couldn’t go past him in the quarter-final draw.
It was the third encounter between these two top-class contestants and Ferrer imposed a 2-1 lead on Tsonga after his latest victory. It was two years back when the Spaniard registered his first win over the Frenchman in the quarter-finals of Rome Masters. Tsonga avenged his loss from Ferrer during his last year’s dream run at Wimbledon Championships but fell cheaply to the world number five on his home soil last week.
Fourth seeded Ferrer registered a 6-2, 7-5 score line against Tsonga to make it through to the semi-finals and eventually claimed glory in the title match. Tsonga didn’t deliver his best performance in the quarter-finals, utterly failing to register a single break point in the entire matchup. His sloppy stroke-play made it easier for Ferrer to hunt him down and the Frenchman will certainly be looking forward to post a far improved performance at the elite event in London’s O2 Arena.
The Spaniard went on to win the Paris Masters crown on Sunday, outplaying the Pole tennis prodigy, Jerzy Janowicz, 6-4, 6-3, in a comprehensive straight-sets encounter. Ferrer’s title victory will certainly be a real confidence booster for his ATP World Tour Finals campaign and he will be looking forward to extend his winning impetus in the season-ending finale at the indoor hard courts of London. He will have to face the seven best performers of the current season and it will not be an easy task for him to stand tall among all of them.
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