Jo-Wilfried Tsonga topples Jamie Baker in the second round – AEGON Championships 2012
Second seed, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, survived on a bad day for the seeded players, as he downed world number 203, Jamie Baker of Great Britain, in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 in the second round at the AEGON Championships in London
on Wednesday.
Tsonga and Baker started the match steadily, holding their serve in the first seven games to take the score to 4-3 in the former’s favour. The Frenchman struck in the eighth and made the most of it to win 6-3.
Ranked fifth in the world, Tsonga fired a couple of aces and 70 percent of the first deliveries in the opening set. He had a very good conversion rate, pocketing 15 of the 19 first and six of the eight second delivery points. The
French contender did not face any break threat and utilized the only opportunity he created.
Tsonga and Baker started the second set by holding their serve in the first two games of the second set to square off the score at 1-1. The Frenchman snatched a break in the third and consolidated on it to attain a 3-1 lead. Tsonga
did not stop here and hit another blow to the Brit, racing to a 5-1 advantage. The French star allowed Baker to win only one game and closed it 6-2.
The right-hander banged in two aces and did not commit any double fault in the second set. Tsonga kept his first serve percentage at 77 and converted 13 of the 17 of them into points. He lost only one point on the second ones,
capturing four of the five. The Frenchman put away the only break point he faced and captured two of the three chances he received.
Tsonga required just 57 minutes to claim victory over his local opponent.
Praising the Brit during the post match press conference, Tsonga said, "Jamie is a good player. He is solid for his ranking. Maybe this sounds strange, but he maybe needs to be a little bit more crazy, relax and enjoy what he's
doing."
On the other hand, a satisfied Baker said, "I've just got to enjoy the match. I've never played somebody ranked as highly as that in a competitive match. He's an unbelievable athlete. That's obviously what I train for, to get opportunities
to play against people like that."
Tsonga is drawn to take on Croatia’s Ivan Dodig, ranked 69th in the world, in the round of 16.
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