Jo-Wilfried Tsonga fights past Nikolay Davydenko in the semi-finals – Moselle Open 2012
World number seventh, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, qualified for the final of the Moselle Open held on the hard courts of his home ground. After a tough encounter against the Russian professional, he summed up his 6-0, 3-6, 6-4 win on the eve of Saturday.
The top seeded French commenced the match with his brilliant game plan and attained a clean sweep throughout the opener. He did not let the Russian wild card entrant hold his serve even once in the set and captured all the games without any further ado. Eventually, he smoothly emerged to the frontline closing the initial set with a bagel.
In the second set, the 31-year-old, Russian overturned the winning order and evened out the scoreboard in the fourth game. He broke his rival’s serve in the seventh game and secured a 4-3 lead. Tsonga struggled hard but was unable to counter the pressure of his rival. Davydenko nudged forward and snatched the last two games, concluding the set with his 6-3 lead.
The local challenger fired five aces onto his rival but committed four double faults. He secured 64 percent initial serve precision with 14 of 18 first and two of 10 second serve points. From two serve points, he could not even pocket away one and his challenger secured the lead by capitalizing the two presented to him. The lower-ranked Russian displayed 68 percent first serve accuracy, with 13 of 17 first and five of eight second delivery points.
In the decider, the 27-year-old gained his former position and evened out the score line to 2-all in the fourth game. The Russian senior gave his opponent a tough deal and he continued to encounter his load by squaring down the scores to 3-3 in the sixth and 4-4 in the seventh game. However, Tsonga smashed back his rival with his powerful serves and assertively clinched the last two games, closing the set with his 6-4 win.
The eighth seeded, Davydenko had a lower initial serve presentation of 69 percent, with 19 of 27 first and four of 12 second serve points. On the other hand, Tsonga attained 71 percent first serve precision bagging away 15 of 17 points.
In the final of the Metz Open 2012, the French challenger will contest against the fifth seeded, Andreas Seppi.
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