Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hammers Frederico Gil to claim a berth in the fourth round – Australian Open 2012
World number six, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, continues with his purple patch to win his third round battle at the Australian Open, beating Frederico Gil of Portugal on Saturday. The French power-house formulated a straight sets
victory with identical scores in all sets, 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, to march into the fourth round of the Grand Slam tournament in style.
Rated at number 107 in the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings, Gil hung in the contest for merely 91 minutes before submitting to the fury of Tsonga in the third set. The tall Frenchman took the better of
his opponent in every segment of the game and drove him out of the contest in an assertive fashion. He secured 85 out of total 138 points being played in the match, with the Portuguese competitor lagging far behind with just 53 points.
Gil had his chances in the contest but he frittered them away carelessly to remain at a disadvantage throughout. He squandered away six precious break opportunities and had to suffer six out of seven crushing break points from
the French opponent to finish on the losing side in the end. The Portuguese dropped his serve in the very first game of the match to trail 0-2 and could never recover from the early damage done. Tsonga nailed another crucial break point in the seventh game
to close out the opener at 6-2.
The sixth seed carried on his winning ways in the following set and stung two more serve breaks in the third and the sixth games to take the set at 6-2. Tsonga registered his fifth serve break of the day in the opening game of
the next set and held his serve to lead 2-0. Gil held in his next two serve games before the French delivered the decisive blow in the seventh game and served out of the match to book a berth in the fourth round of the tournament.
Tsonga will take the winner of the contest between Julien Benneteau of France and Kei Nishikori of Japan. Both men will face off in the third round draw on Saturday afternoon and the winner will compete against the sixth seed for
a place in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.
Tags: