Jo-Wilfried Tsonga prevails over Mardy Fish to advance to the quarter-finals – Wimbledon 2012
French number one, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, came back after going down in the opener to rally past world number 12, Mardy Fish of USA, in four sets 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-4 to reach the last eight at the Wimbledon Championships on Tuesday.
The Frenchman needed three hours and 18 minutes to throw the American out of the tournament.
Fish drew the first blood, as he bagged a breakthrough in the fifth game and won his following serve to take a 4-2 lead. The American did not allow Tsonga to comeback, serving it out at 5-4.
Both players held their serve in the opening three games to take the score to 2-1 in favour of Tsonga. The Frenchman struck in the fourth and consolidated on it to attain a 4-1 advantage. However, Fish broke back in the seventh
and won his subsequent serve to even it out at 4-4. There was no blow from either of the two players in the rest of the set, levelling the proceedings at 6-6 and forcing a tie-breaker. Tsonga grabbed a couple of mini-breaks and made the most of them to triumph
7-6(4).
The Frenchman hit a blow to Fish in the very first game of the third set and won his next serve to build a 2-0 lead. Tsonga maintained it till the end and pocketed it 6-4.
In the fourth set, both players started by holding their opening serves and taking the score to 1-1. The Frenchman snatched a break in the third game and capitalised on his only strike to close it 6-4.
Tsonga and Fish committed four double faults each but the Frenchman banged in 20 aces compared to 17 by the American.
A disappointed Fish said, “I played well enough to win I would have beaten a lot of players today. He's one of the best players in the world on this surface.”
Ranked sixth in the world, Tsonga is slated to meet Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the quarter-finals.
During the post match press conference, Tsonga said about the expectations from his German opponent, “The best match of his life. I think he [has] never reached the semis, so of course he will play hard. I expect to have a very,
very tough match. Maybe you will say I'm [the] favourite, because I [have] played against him many times. But, like me, we have nothing to lose. I just have to play my game. For me it was difficult because last year I played well. I will play more relaxed.”
Tsonga and Kohlschreiber have met six times before on the ATP World Tour. The Frenchman leads the German 5-1 in the head to head series.
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