Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outplays Nicolas Almagro to reach the semis – Rogers Cup 2011
World number 16, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga kept his wild run at Rogers Cup, outplaying the 10th ranked Spaniard, Nicolas Almagro, in the quarter-final matchup on Friday afternoon.
Tsonga’s belligerent performance with the racquet disposed off the eighth seeded Almagro in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, taking just one hour and twenty eight minutes of play. The brilliant display of domination from the 13th seed French recorded his 32nd victory of the running year, booking him a berth in his second ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Master Series tournament.
The tall Frenchman stunned everyone earlier in the tournament when he outplayed the Swiss maestro, Roger Federer, in the third round. He carried on his momentum in the quarter-finals, continuing with his demolition job to dispense out the world number 10, Almagro, in style. His agility in the game lacked something to be desired but the Spaniard didn’t prove a tough competitor for the hard-hitting Tsonga.
“I was a bit tired today. I lacked energy. The match yesterday took a lot of stamina, and today my energy level was low,” admitted Tsonga after the matchup. “Therefore, I decided to focus on only a number of return games and try to focus on holding my serve. It was a way for me to save the energy I had left, not playing hard every game.”
It was the fifth consecutive victory for the French against Almagro, who trails the head-to-head deficit of 0-5, which include two defeats in the current year and both in the Masters Series events. The Spaniard failed to crack in a single break point in the entire matchup, squandering away three vital chances in the match to finish the contest on the losing end.
Tsonga had a pathetic serve precision of merely 36 per cent in the opening set but he nailed a crucial serve break at the start to get the better of his opponent. Almagro secured 16 first serve points in the opener, as compared to Tsonga’s nine points, but failed to recover from the damage done by the serve break and eventually lost the first set at 4-6.
The second set was a complete replication of the first set, with Tsonga cracking in a timely serve break to close out the set at 6-4, getting a place in the semi-final of Rogers Cup. The ultimate test for the 13th seed Tsonga awaits him in his next round match, when he will go one-on-one with the ballistic world number one, Novak Djokovic of Serbia, for a place in the final of Montreal Masters.
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