Jo-Wilfried Tsonga squeaks through Xavier Malisse to reach the semis – Erste Bank Open 2011
Top seeded French Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied past Xavier Malisse of Belgian in a brutal three setter match at the Erste Bank Open 2011, an ATP World Tour 250 series event taking place on the indoor hard courts in Vienna, Austria.
He bounced to register a 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over the American resident Malisse to book a last four spot on Friday.
World number nine Tsonga was a set down when he re-focused his strategy. He broke the Belgian’s serve once in the decider to triumph in exactly two hours. The Frenchman not only avenged his loss at Indian Wells earlier this season
but also levelled the scores by 1-1 in the head-to-head series against the Belgian.
31-year-old Belgian thundered into the Wiener Stadthalle and broke the seed’s serve in the opening game. Later, he plucked entire serves without facing any hurdle and sealed the opener with a 6-4 win. Malisse capitalised on one
out of five breakpoint opportunities to his advantage and took full advantage of the several unforced errors Tsonga spilled.
Tsonga raised the bar of his game in the second set as he managed to brush off the only breakpoint came across. However, he failed to find any breakpoint chance and dragged the set to a tie-breaker. The highest ranked player of
the tournament showed his class in it and eventually clinched the equaliser with a 7-6(4) score line.
The Frenchman carried his momentum form the second set to the final set and quickly bagged in entire serves without facing any breakpoint. He manipulated three breakpoint opportunities of which he converted one to his advantage
in the third game and pocketed the decider with a 6-4 victory.
Overall, Tsonga smashed brilliant twenty aces and regardless of clobbering an equal first serve share of 59 percent, he registered a tremendous 83 percent win on it.
"He broke me in my first service game, so it was difficult, but I was there and I fought and I won. So it’s good and I think I played a good match," assessed the delighted Frenchman. "It’s never easy to play against him; he hits
the ball flat and it’s really difficult, but today I did the job."
Tsonga will next confront Daniel Brands of Germany who eased past Belgian Steve Darcis in straight sets on their first encounter.
Brands failed to save the only breakpoint faced but cashed in half of the six breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to seal the deal with a 6-3, 6-4 score line.
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