Tennis News

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is through to the semi-finals of the Shanghai Rolex Masters after edging Kevin Anderson 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4 on Friday.

The Frenchman is bidding to reach his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final since August 2014, when he defeated Roger Federer to win the Toronto title. In Saturday’s semi-finals he will face Rafael Nadal. Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 8-3, with Tsonga’s last win coming four years ago at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

It could have been very different for Tsonga, though, had new Top 10 member Anderson taken his chances in the first set. Trailing 3-6 in the first-set tie-break, Tsonga saved three set points as he reeled off five straight points to sneak the opener.

Anderson did not miss his opportunity in the second set, converting the only break point in the 12th game to level the match. Tsonga quickly regained the lead in the third set, though, breaking for a 2-1 advantage. The Frenchman fended off break back points in the fourth and sixth games before sealing victory in two hours and 41 minutes.

“It was a good match,” said Tsonga. “It was a good level, I think. We both played good tennis. I was really aggressive. I served really, really well today. I moved well. I’m just really happy to win today. It come at the good moment. It’s good to play like this.” 

The 29-year-old Anderson was looking to mark his first week in the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings by reaching his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final. The South African has a 42-21 record on the season, highlighted by winning his third ATP World Tour title in Winston-Salem (d. Herbert).

The 30-year-old Tsonga is through to the Shanghai semi-finals for the second time (also 2013). He is chasing his second ATP World Tour title in as many months, having triumphed recently at the Moselle Open in Metz (d. Simon). After the first three months of his season were hampered by injury, Tsonga has hit form in the second half of the year, reaching the semi-finals at Roland Garros (l. to Wawrinka) and the quarter-finals at the US Open (l. to Cilic).

“I am really happy to be back at the good level,” said Tsonga. “It’s good things for next year. The most important thing for me now is to stay healthy and continue to play and improve my game.”
 

Rafael Nadal’s Asian swing gathered further momentum on Thursday with the eighth seed posting a 6-3, 7-6(3) triumph over Canada’s Milos Raonic at the Shanghai Rolex Masters. After reaching his first hard-court final of the season last week in Beijing, Nadal registered his first win over a Top-10 opponent in six attempts to reach the quarter-finals. His last was against World No. 7 Tomas Berdych at ATP Masters 1000 Madrid.

The 2009 Shanghai runner-up broke Raonic’s opening service game for 2-0 when the No. 9 seed fired a forehand well wide. He maintained the advantage to serve out the opening set with Raonic dumping a backhand return into the net on set point.

“Today, I felt that I was not playing with as much nerves when I am on court,” said Nadal. “I was able to enjoy the match.”

Nadal scored the early mini-break in the second-set tie-break for 1/0. He surged to 5/2 and whipped a forehand passing shot winner to bring up four match points. He secured the match on his second chance when Raonic’s forehand hit the net. The win extended Nadal’s FedEx ATP Head2Head record against Raonic to 6-1 and avenges a quarter-final defeat the last time the pair met at ATP Masters 1000 Indian Wells this year.

“Winning a match 7‑6 in the third yesterday and winning a match again today in the tiebreak of a second set, two tiebreaks without losing a point with my serve, it’s impossible if you don’t have control of your emotions.  That’s something that, a couple of months ago, would have been impossible for me,” added Nadal.

 “My serve obviously worked much better than yesterday, but when I play well on my service game, it’s not just because I serve well, but especially because I play well from the baseline,” said Nadal, who has not dropped serve since being broken by Ivo Karlovic in the opening game of the second round.

Nadal’s quarter-final foe will be Stan Wawrinka, who needed nearly three hours to overcome Marin Cilic, 7-5, 6-7(7), 6-4. The Swiss came away with the first set by break his opponent on the final point, but squandered a match point in the second-set tie-break before closing out the win in three. The Spaniard leads the rivalry 12-2, but Wawrinka has not dropped a set in the pair’s past two meetings (2015 Rome and 2015 Australian Open).

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic improved to a 13-match winning streak on Wednesday as he reached the third round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters with an emphatic 6-2, 6-1 victory over Martin Klizan.

The Serb is looking to win the Beijing-Shanghai double for the third time (2012-13). Last week, he surged to a sixth China Open crown in Beijing for the loss of just 18 games in five matches – the lowest five-match total of his career en route to a title. It marked his eighth tour-level title of the season, which has already seen him clinch the year-end No. 1 spot in the Emirates ATP Rankings.

In his second clash this season with Klizan, Djokovic converted five of his 10 break points and lost only one point behind his second serve as he raced to victory in 63 minutes. The Belgrade native improved to a 69-5 match record on the season and a 20-3 mark in Shanghai.

“Klizan is a very flashy player,” said Djokovic. “I knew that coming into the court.  I knew that he’s talented. He can play very fast but with a tendency to make a lot of unforced errors, which he did. He made my life a bit easier on the court today. I was trying to serve, move him around the court. Just played as much as I needed. It was enough to win.

“I’m aware of the mental edge that I might have over a certain amount of players, and I try to use that,” continued the Serb. “I try to win and do anything that is possible and necessary for me to achieve that. Probably that was the case, him not being able to maybe perform as well as he wanted.” 

Fourth seed Stan Wawrinka also maintained his winning run, defeating Viktor Troicki 7-6(3), 6-3. The Swiss is coming off his fourth title of the season in Tokyo last week (d. Paire) and dismissed Troicki in 88 minutes, breaking serve twice from eight opportunities.

Wawrinka, who has never been past the quarter-finals in six appearances in Shanghai, set a third-round contest with Marin Cilic, whom he leads 8-2 in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.  

Richard Gasquet battled to a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Vasek Pospisil to set a third-round clash with Bernard Tomic. The 11^th-seeded Frenchman withstood 13 aces from Pospisil to break the Canadian’s serve three times, triumphing in just over two hours.