Jo-Wilfried Tsonga topples Ryan Harrison: France vs. USA – Davis Cup World Group Quarter-Final tie
French number one, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, dropped one set on his way to a crucial win over the 19-years-old American debutant, Ryan Harrison, in the Davis Cup World Group tie. Final scores were registered to be 7-5, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2
in favour of the sixth ranked French.
World number 66, Harrison, was pumped up to have a startling debut in the Davis Cup but he wasn’t able to handle the onslaught of the French. However, he did well to save himself from an embarrassing straight sets triumph; made
life difficult for the 26-years-old.
Later in the day, John Isner squashed Gilles Simon to level the tie at 1-1. The quarter-final battle is open at the moment and any side can book the spot in the semi-final stage. Harrison had Tsonga will play one more match apiece
that will be the deciding factor of the tie.
On his successful triumph, the French big gun stated, “It was a bit up and down. I missed some easy shots. It’s tough to play on clay after the hard courts but we chose this surface. It’s tough for us but also [for] the opponent.”
Tsonga started the match with a serve hold and so did his opponent. An exchange of breakthroughs took place between the two players in the following two games before a series of serve holds. The French starlet was leading the scores
at 6-5 with his opponent serving the 12th game of the match to keep the set alive. However, the teen failed to handle the pressure and dropped the game that rounded off the opening set proceedings.
The French tennis icon went all out on the teen in the second set forcing him to drop serve on a couple of occurrences and allowing no opportunity to him to take control of the match. Harrison was struggling in the second set and
lost it miserably courtesy to some outstanding experienced outbreak from the French.
Ironically, the momentum swirled in the third set and the teen cruised away to a lead of 5-1; breaking serve thrice and keeping the match alive for himself. Tsonga was tiring a bit that probably led to his downfall.
However, the chances of an upset were completely diminished when the French tennis ace broke serve in the second game of the fourth set and registered 3-0 upfront. He continued to hammer his rival and won another breakpoint in
the last game of the match that gave an edge to his team in the tie.
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