TENNIS – Jo-Wilfred Tsonga battled past Andy Murray in a close quarter final in Toronto winning in three sets to reach his third semifinal in four appearances at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. Diego Sampaolo
Jo-Wilfred Tsonga battled past Andy Murray in a close quarter final in Toronto winning in three sets with 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4 to reach his third semifinal in four appearances at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. He had already qualified for the semifinal in 2009 and 2011. On both occasions he beat two top-10 players: in 2009 he beat Roger Federer before losing to Murray in the semifinal. In 2011 he lost against Novak Djokovic.
Both players saved one break point in the first set but it came down to the tie- break where Tsonga got a decisive mini-break to take the win with 7-5.
Murray looked in control of the match when he broke serve in the 10th game. He reeled off five games in a row from 4-4 in the second set. Murray got a break to take a 3-1 lead in the third set. However Tsonga broke straight back to draw level before taking another break two games later. From 0-3 Tsonga won five games in a row to take a 5-3 lead in the third set.
Tsonga won his first match against Murray since the 2008 Australian Open. In their previous head-to head match Murray won in straights sets at the Sony Open in Miami. Murray still leads 9-2 in their head-to-matches.
Tsonga will play his seventh Master 1000 semifinal.
The Frenchman hit 42 winners and won 83 percent of his first serve points.
“Jo is a top player. He is a fantastic athlete. When the game is on, he is very tough to beat”, said Murray.
