Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outplays Marcos Baghdatis in the opening round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia
Eighteenth ranked Frenchman put up great effort to dispose of Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the first round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, played at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy. In Monday night’s matchup, the tall Frenchman
wrapped up an emphatic straight sets victory 6-3, 6-2, taking just one hour and fifteen minutes.
26-year-old Tsonga appeared in a devastating form, blowing away his opponent to advance to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 1000 event. The hard-hitting Frenchman took down his opponent
with his sheer power and precise ground strokes. He build up momentum right from the start of the contest and then kept pushing Baghdatis to commit plenty of unforced errors. The French fired six thudding aces to the opponent’s court, while conceding just
one double fault in the entire matchup.
The world number eighteen crafted eleven opportunities to break serve of Baghdatis and succeeded in merely four times to route him out of the game. Tsonga remained unbroken throughout the contest and faced no break point from Baghdatis.
Although his serve accuracy was pretty much ordinary, Tsonga reeled off 33 out of 41 first serve points to take down Baghdatis. Nineteen elegant winners were reported by the French, as he registered his fifteenth victory of the running ATP season.
Tsonga had a solid start to the opener and an early break at 1-1 gave the initial advantage to him. Baghdatis was pushed on his back foot right from the beginning and never managed to recover from the early setback he suffered.
The Frenchman clinched 16 out of 18 total serve points in the opening set and was equally good with his return game as well.
The unseeded French continued playing aggressive tennis and his second serve break awarded him three set points. Finally a netted forehand from Baghdatis ended the opener at 6-3 in Tsonga’s favour.
French domination grew even stronger in the second set as Tsonga reeled off opening three games to lead 3-0, stinging an early serve break. Baghdatis’ errant strokes kept exacerbating his position in the match, bestowing plenty
of easy points to his opponent. He held serve in the next two games before Tsonga broke again in the eighth game and finished off the contest when Baghdatis thumped a backhand into the net at 6-2.
Tsonga will be taking on the former world number one, Roger Federer, in the second round of the tournament. The reigning world number three received a bye into the second round at Rome and his first match will be against Tsonga.
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