Jo-Wilfried Tsonga labours past Benoit Paire to clear the second round – Shanghai Rolex Masters 2012
World number six, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, has to dig deep before putting aside the tough resistance from his countryman, Benoit Paire, in the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters on Wednesday. The French number one spent one hour and 55 minutes to settle the clash in straight sets, 7-6(7), 7-5, making into the third round of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Shanghai, China.
Fifth seeded Tsonga had last defeated Paire comprehensively at 6-1, 6-2, in their last encounter in Marseille, France, but had to really work hard to hunt down the crafty 23-year-old this time round. He was dragged into the tie-break in the opening set and had to face some serious resistance in the following set as well. However, his mighty forehand worked perfectly for him and the 6ft 2in tall Frenchman edged past Paire to post a 2-0 lead in the all-time head-to-head lead series.
As it was already anticipated, Tsonga had exceptional serve stats in the matchup. He banged in 10 thudding aces to his opponent’s court and secured 31 out of 42 first serve points to get the better of Paire. He dropped his serve four out of six times in the match but replied with five out of 10 cracking break points to come out as the winner.
Paire had an excellent start to the contest, breaking Tsonga’s serve in the very first game but only to be broken in the very next game to fall back to 1-1. Another exchange of break points in the fourth and fifth games was followed by conventional play, with both contenders holding their respective serves to reach a 6-6 deadlock. 52nd ranked Paire remained equally competitive in the tie-break but lost two of the all-important points towards the end, submitting the opener at 6-7(7) to the world number six.
The following set took off in exactly the similar fashion to the first one, with both men trading two serve breaks apiece early and squaring down the scores to 5-5. The set was heading towards another tie-break but Tsonga seized the opportunity in the 11th game, breaking his opponent’s serve and then sealing out his victory 7-5 in the next game.
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