Pablo Cuevas upsets Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Estoril Open
Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas warded off late resistance from the third seed, French Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to win in straight sets on Wednesday. He registered a 6-2, 7-6(0) win over the Frenchman to advance into the quarter-finals of the
2011 Estadio Nacional.
World number 61 Cuevas showed exceptional skills to overpower the world number 18 Tsonga in just seventy-eight minutes at Estoril Court Central. It was their first meeting and after this victory, Cuevas took the lead in their head-to-head
series by 1-0 against the Frenchman.
The Uruguayan showed dismal performance in start of this season but now he is in much better shape. He recently made a semi-final berth at Houston but exited from the opening round at Barcelona. However, Cuevas entered this ATP
World Tour event in full of confidence and dumped Spanish Pere Riba in the first round in straight sets. After trashing the seed, he is now eyeing for his first ATP title besides the 450,000 Euros prise money.
25-year-old played his best tennis in the first set and held his opening serve plausibly. He then kept his remaining serves with his massive forehands from arsenal of skills and broke the Frenchman’s serve twice to win the set
with an assuring 6-2 score line. Cuevas had a slightly lower first serve share of 53 percent as compared to Tsonga’s 59 percent and registered an awesome 90 percent win on it. He faced zero breakpoints and founded six breakpoint opportunities of which he converted
two to his advantage.
He carried his winning ways into the second set and kept his opening serve spectacularly. Later the Uruguayan converted only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage but failed to save the only breakpoint faced. He kept his remaining
serves and took the set to tiebreaker where he dominated all over the court to clinch the set with a 7-6(0) win.
The French wild card entrant committed many unforced errors and more double faults in the match. He wasn’t at his best on the court and despite having a similar first serve share, Tsonga earned 64 percent win on it. He re-formed
in the final set but it was too late and eventually exited from his opening round match.
"It was perfect conditions, but my opponent played well and I didn't," said the former Australian Open finalist. "I have nothing to regret, my goal is still to win grand slams and big tournaments. I guess I must think of this as
practice. I will still work hard and seriously with Madrid (Masters 1000) coming up."
Cuevas will next face sixth seeded Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci who overwhelmed French qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin in a three set thriller to reach this spot.
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