TENNIS – Jo Wilfred Tsonga beat Roger Federer 7-5 7-6 (3) to become the first French player to win at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. Tsonga has won his first tournament since Marseille 2013 collecting his second Master 1000 title of his career. With this win Tsonga has returned to the top-10. Diego Sampaolo
Jo Wilfred Tsonga, 13th seeded player, has finally claimed a ATP title after a long drought of 18 months with a convincing win in straight sets over World Number 3 and seed 2 Roger Federer, who was chasing his third Rogers Cup of his career and his 300th match win on the ATP Tour.
Tsonga won for the fifth time in 16 head-to-head matches against Federer crowning a dream week in which he beat four top-10 players in a row Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Grigor Dimitrov and Roger Federer becoming the first player to achieve this feat in a Master 1000 Tournament since Guillermo Canas in 2002. He has also become the first player outside the top-10 to claim a Master 1000 since Ivan Ljubicic at Indian Wells in 2010.
Federer made some errors and faced problems with Tsonga’s serve and ground strokes.
Despite some unforced errors, both players held serve in the first games of the opening set. Federer produced a drop-shot at 5-5 but Tsonga managed to hold serve. Federer went down 15-30 after hitting two shots long. The Basel legend hit a winner but he sent a groundstroke wide and faced the first break point of the set at 5-6. Federer hit a ball long to drop serve in the final game of the opening set. Tsonga sealed the win in the first set after 44 minutes.
Tsonga earned a break point when he was leading 3-2 but Federer saved it with an ace. The Frenchman created another chance to break at 4-3 but Federer won two consecutive points to force the game to deuce. Tsonga got two more chances in this game but Federer fended them off and held serve with an ace.
Tsonga did not face any break point chance, hit 11 aces and won 94 percent of his first serve points. Federer saved a match point while he serving at 4-5 in the second set. In the tie-break Tsonga got a mini-break at 4-3 and reeled off the next three games to wrap up the match in one hour and 49 minutes.
Tsonga took a re-match over Federer who had beaten him in his previous Master 1000 final in Paris Bercy 2011. Tsonga has become the first French player to win a Master 1000 Tournament since Guy Forget in Cincinnati in 2001. For Federer it’s the fifth lost final in 2014. He won two tournaments in Dubai and Halle.
“I had problems on my knee two years ago and I have now this trophy. I am very happy”, said Tsonga
“Today was just difficult in terms of rhythm from baseline. It was like a new tournament for me. I thinks he played really solid when he had to. He served well, which was key for him”, said Federer.
