Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stopped Roger Federer in his tracks at Monte Carlo with a well-deserved 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win. This will be the second time the big Frenchman will be appearing in the semi-finals of this event and his endeavour and capacity to rise his game when it mattered earned him a place in the final four at Roger Federer’s expense. The Swiss player looked to be finding his groove in Monte Carlo but a lack match fitness clearly hindered his play in the final two sets, where his frustrations got the better of him, to be expected given how the draw has opened up.
Tsonga seems to have Federer’s number as he defeated him in their last meeting in the Toronto final back in 2014 but it took him a while to get going today. Both players exchanged a couple of breaks early on and then Federer opened up a gap by mixing up swift movements to the net with scintillating passing shots from the back, aided by Tsonga’s erratic form.
Federer, however, boosted his counterpart’s confidence by surrendering his first service game in the second set. Tsonga started to connect winner after winner and looked to step into Federer’s serve, playing aggresively on return. The Swiss did manage a break back at 2-4 which offered a glimmer of hope, but in the following game it was Tsonga’s huge game which did the talking and another unforced error at the net from Federer gave the break of serve immediately back to the Frenchman.
The third set was an opportunity to start with a clean slate for Federer and the match was much more even. Tsonga, though, was in no mood to let this one slip away and didn’t offer Federer a hope on his service games; the Swiss player cracked under the pressure and lost his service game at 5-5.
The match ended in a way that summed up the clash: with an unforced error from Roger Federer, who will come away from this encounter feeling he has a long way to go on the claycourt swing before he can believe he is a contender for Roland Garros.
Tsonga will try and keep up his momentum in the semi finals where he faces underdog Gael Monfils. The French entertainer has cruised through the draw almost unnoticed and proves once again that he is a tremedously accomplished claycourter, as he has reached the semi finals for the second year on the bounce in Monte Carlo. Monfils has flown past Muller, Lorenzi, Vesely and surprise package Marcel Granollers. In his quarter final today, he also showed a maturity to understand when to lift his game. In the second set he allowed Granollers to go up a break but fought back from 1-3 down to win the set 6-4 -and the match 6-2, 6-4 – and gave off the feeling that he could have won the match how and when he wanted.
Two good friends and compatriots will put on a show in Monte Carlo to book a ticket in the coveted final of the Masters 1000 event.
