Tennis – ATP Monte-Carlo 2014 Jo-Wilfred Tsonga qualified for tomorrow’s quarter finals by defeating Italian clay specialist Fabio Fognini 5-7 6-4 6-0 in a match decided by mentality more than game. Giulio Gasparin
The French number one recovered from a set down and was forced to save several break points early in the second set before going on a roll until the very end.
Fognini, who was the player with most wins on clay this season, left the court of the Principality extremely disappointed for a match that was on his racket for a set and a half, before a sudden black out.
The plot of the match was highlighted by the very first point, when Tsonga hit a second serve ace, but the 10th seed started already to complain about the bad call. This later became the norm.
Tsonga started the first set looking solid from the baseline as he found an early break for a 2-0 lead, but Fognini’s reaction came fast and from that moment on it was all decided by the Italian.
Clearly the most apt to clay between the two, Fognini exploited his movements and talent to turn defence into offence and promptly went up 5-4 40-15 behind his serve.
Suddenly the world number 13 felt tight and tried something more to close the set, but this resulted in a double fault and two very awkward charged to the net.
Tsonga broke back but his comeback did not last long enough, as the Italian found the cool and with some outstanding aggressive tennis managed to break once more.
Despite another horrid miss on the first set point, this time Fognini closed the set and looked as if he was about to score a routine win.
Tsonga tried to step inside the baseline more and more often as he realised that he stood no chances against the Italian from behind, but the tactic seemed to work only partially.
Fognini kept holding easily, but he seemed to fail finding the way for a break despite the many chances.
The seventh game of the second set finally turned out to be fundamental for the final result.
Fognini tried everything to find the decisive break, but a combination of a few crucial mistakes and good serves from the French man resulted in a hold for Tsonga.
The ninth seed broke the Italian at his very first break point of the set and then went on serving out to love for the set.
The break point was forced to be replayed though, because of a bad call from a linesman, when the point was almost safely in the hands of Fognini.
The Italian went to the umpire asking for that line judge to be changed, but it did not happen and as if that mattered more than the match to him, the Italian suddenly started to unravel.
His number of errors grew together with his monologues between points, while Tsonga was gaining confidence and did not let the chance slip away from his hands.
It was the beginning of an outstanding streak of points that lasted for 17 of them, while Fognini was digging his hole deeper and deeper into bad mood.
Fognini called the supervisor asking once again for that judge to be changed, then required the trainer for a leg injury and kept moaning about one man in the stands.
Despite the show staged by the Italian, Tsonga managed to keep the head focused and kept playing some stunning tennis to go up 3-0 and serve.
From that moment on, Fognini made an absolute joke of himself as he stopped even trying to win any point.
He kept his moaning up though and by the end he found himself arguing with the crowd, while Tsonga silently conquered the last point and earned a place in the quarter finals.
The French man is set to face the winner of Roger Federer against Lukas Rosol.
