Allez Jo.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bowed out against Rafael Nadal in straight sets. It was a closely fought contest with the crowd strongly behind the French Number 1, but Tsonga was not in the best form and crumbled slightly at the end of each of the sets and it was enough for Nadal to gain the win which takes him into the Semi Finals of Paris to play Novak Djokovic (SRB) [3]

But this may not be the season end for Tsonga who will be an alternate at the end of year championships in London.

It was a tough day for Tsonga, getting off to a slow start with a few miss hits off the forehand wing, Tsonga struggling to cope with the heavy topspin forehands from Soderling. Tsonga soon found some better form but the match seemed to revolve around a point at 3-4* 30-30 in the first set. Tsonga made what seemed a superb backhand pass up the line and thought he won the point to give him break point, he won the following point and thought he had broke back. Soderling thought so too as he chucked the balls out of his pocket towards the balls boys. The umpire calls “deuce” leaving Tsonga confused, irritated and soon built into massive fustration, smashing his racket and handing it to a person in the crowd. The line judge called the ball out but no-one baring the umpire seemed to hear it. Hawkeye showed the ball cleary on the line. Poor umpiring as it was such an important part of the match he should have made sure Tsonga didn’t want to challenge the out call and knew the correct score.

Take nothing away from Soderling he played a great match but you feel it might have been different if justice was done and Tsonga got the break back in the first set. Tsonga fought hard in the second set but seemed to be riddled with fustration from the incident in the first set, Tsonga unable to serve to his usual high standards. Soderling served out the match with supreme accuracy, serving 3 aces in a row giving Tsonga virtually no chance to get back into it.

Hard luck Jo.

Tsonga won his opening 2nd round match in straight sets at the Shanghai Masters defeating Wild Card Shoa-Xuan Zeng from China. Tsonga was untroubled on serve throughout only dropping a total of 6 points. Zeng’s service games were a struggle and he could only win 7/20 (35%) points on his second serve. Tsonga is looking to maintain a top 8 ranking to reserve a place at the end of year championships in London and will play a contender for a top 8 spot, Robin Soderling in the 3rd round. Soderling has been impressive in recent weeks only losing to Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer and Davydenko, so it will take a good performance from Tsonga to win.  The winner will be well placed to make the latter stages of the masters as 4th seed Juan Martin Del Potro who was in their section of draw had to withdraw against Jurgen Melzer.

Tsonga totally dominated the Russian to win in 2 comfortable sets. He served like a dream and was never in trouble. When he serves 75% first serves in he gives little to no chance for his opponents to break, Mikhail Youzhny did well to get one break point but he could do nothing with it. Tsonga improved his starts to his matches in the Semi’s and carried it through to the Final and was virtually unstoppable. Tsonga’s serve, groundshots and movement looking better than ever. The backhand has come on leaps and bounds, it doesn’t look like it’s going to miss it anymore, combine that with the big serve and forehand and you have a player that can beat anyone. This is very promising for the rest of the year and looking forward to next year’s grandslams.

Well done Jo on a truely great week :)

Tsonga got off to a roaring start and never looked back, comprehensively out-playing friend and fellow countryman Gael Monfils to win in just 55 minutes! It was totally one sided from the outset. Tsonga finding his best tennis just when he needed to against a very dangerous talented opponent in Monfils. Tsonga won 60% of the points winning 97% of points behind his first serve- completely devastating especially when he’s serving 69% first serves in. Tsonga will now go in to the Tokyo 500 final a heavy favourite against Mikhail Youzhny who has also played very well this week.

Allez Tsonga!!!!!

In Tokyo today, Tsonga took on an inform Ernest Gulbis. Fully firing in the first set, Gulbis gave Tsonga little chance to break serve and Tsonga lost the set 6-4. Tsonga showed a great attitude in the second set and his patience paid off, Gulbis’ level dipped and Tsonga took full advantage. Tsonga served extremely well serving 19 aces in the match and serving a massive 72% first serves in. Tsonga’s looking in great form, if he can just sort out his starts to matches he will be near impossible to beat. Tsonga will play either doubles partner Wawrinka or his friend and fellow country man Monfils in the Semi Final of Tokyo.