Recap of the fiercest battles of 2012: Djokovic vs. Tsonga – French Open 2012
Right-hander Serbian professional, Novak Djokovic, ousted the French challenger, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, in the quarterfinal round of the French Open Grand Slam held at the clay courts of Ronald Garros.
The two contestants waged a breath taking five set thrill, 6-1, 5-7, 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-1, lasting for nearly 4 hours and 4 minutes.
In a post match interview, Djokovic said, “It's, I guess, trying to be mentally tough and believing in your shots. Obviously, a little bit of experience that I had playing on this level for last five, six years. I did have some matches similar to this one
when I was match points down and managing to come back.”
The Serbian number one entered the semi-finals of a Grand Slam Championship for the eighth time. He maintains a remarkable performance throughout the previous year, defeating all the over powering odds. Tsonga picked a slow start against his competitor and
bagged away three break points in the fourth set. The Serbian contender displayed a remarkable pace and the end of the 12thgame, he gallantly stood like a strong iron. This manifested a strong resolution to succeed and completely exhausted Tsonga.
The 27-year-old Frenchman maintains an outstanding career as tennis professional; he is the only Frenchman after Gael Monfils to reach the courts of Roland Garros. He rallied past the world number one, Christophe Roger-Vasselin in the final and Jimmy Connors,
in the quarter-finals since 1983.
He waged a tough fight against his junior, with a strong determination to take over. Nonetheless, he was completely disappointed at his loss. The 25-year-old Serbian professional sustained his momentum and did not give his challenger even a single chance
to take the lead. He succeeded until the finals of the tournament, and received a four set loss at the hands of king of clay, Rafael Nadal.
The Frenchman said, “This is probably the most difficult defeat or loss in my career. I haven't lost that many matches after such a big fight. It's very rare for me to have match points and not win the match, so I [will] remember that because it was Roland
Garros; it was a quarter-final.”
The reigning world number eighth, Tsonga, clinched a relatively similar initial serve precision of 68 percent. He thunder across six aces onto his rival, committing three double faults. He only lost his lead as he committed 61 unforced errors in the match,
converting 69 of 106 first and 21 of 50 second serve points. On the other hand, Djokovic was confident with his winning momentum and secured 67 percent first serve accuracy. He bombarded seven aces with just two double faults. He managed to capitalize on 81
of 114 first and 29 of 55 second serve points in retaliation.
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