Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcomes Philipp Kohlschreiber to move to the last four – Wimbledon 2012
France’s best player, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany in four sets 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Championships for the second successive year on Wednesday.
Tsonga and Kohlschreiber put on a brilliant serving display in the opener, as they did not lose even a single one, taking the score to 6-6 and forcing a tie-break. Tsonga played remarkably well later on, grabbing six of the first
seven points to build a 6-1 lead. Kohlschreiber almost came to equal terms, as he won four straight points to reduce the trail to 5-6 but failed to claim another one, losing it 6-7(5).
After going down in a close first set, Kohlschreiber made an ideal start in the second one, grabbing opening three games to race to a 3-0 advantage. However, the Frenchman broke back in the seventh and held his next serve to even
out the proceedings at 4-4. Serving to stay in the set one game later, Tsonga lost it again and went down 4-6.
The story of the third set was exactly similar to the opener, as none of the two players permitted the other to claim a breakthrough, taking the score to 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker round. Tsonga dropped just three points, clinching
a couple of mini-breaks to win 7-6(3).
The Frenchman and his German opponent won their serves in the first three games to take the score to 2-1 in the former’s favour. Tsonga raised his level after that, as he captured four of the following five games and triumphed
6-2.
The fifth seed needed two hours and 48 minutes to throw the German out of the competition.
Tsonga said, after the match, “I’m really happy, really happy. For the second time, I [have] reached the semis. For me, it's going to also be a second chance.”
He added, “Before, I was not consistent enough in my head. I lost my concentration many times. It was tough for me to play tennis, honestly, because I lost my concentration every single day and it was difficult.”
The Frenchman is slated to play home favourite, Andy Murray, in the semi-finals.
Talking about his coming match, Tsonga said, "Andy, he's able to come a bit more to the net and come to finish the point. For me Andy's one of the players I don't like to play because he's returning really well and he can play
some really good passing shots.”
The Frenchman trails the British number one 1-5 in their head to head series.
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