Second seed Rafael Nadal beat title-holder Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-5 on Friday, setting up a Paris Masters semi-final clash with third seed Novak Djokovic. Djokovic had earlier defeated Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the first of the day's quarterfinals to reach the last four in Paris for the first time.
Frenchman Tsonga was seeking to become the first man to successfully defend the prestigious Bercy title that traditionally brings down the curtain on the ATP regular season.
And he got off to a storming start in front of a packed Bercy Stadium by holding his serve to love and then procuring two break points on Nadal's following serve.
But he was unable to convert any of those as the gritty Nadal, who saved five match points against Nicolas Almagro in the third round on Wednesday and narrowly escaped against Tommy Robredo on Thursday, hung on to level.
Tsonga let slip three more break points in the sixth game and was made to pay the price five games later when a resurgent Nadal grabbed the first break of the match with a stinging forehand drive that the net-bound Tsonga volleyed long.
The Spaniard duly pocketed the set on his own serve.
The second set followed a near identical pattern to the first with Tsonga holding serve comfortably earlier on and Nadal having a harder time of it.
But once again in the 11th game, Tsonga's concentration wavered resulting in unforced errors that handed Nadal the break of serve he needed.
The Spaniard had no trouble putting the match away as Tsonga's game fell apart and the title he won superbly last year was taken from him.
Djokovic's win over Soderling wrecked the Swede's hopes of a first-ever appearance in the ATP Tour Finals.
Soderling, who made the final of the French Open the last time he played in Paris in June, went into the match knowing that he needed to at least reach the final here to clinch the remaining spot in the season-ending tournament.
He did just fine in the second set which he won 6-1 after dropping the first, but in a tense decider he was the first to crack on serve in the eighth game when two unforced errors on the backhand side followed by a double fault gave Djokovic three breakpoints.
Soderling saved the first of these, but then netted a weak backhand to hand the break to the third seed who made no mistake in serving out for the match.
The remaining two quarterfinals on Friday see France's Gael Monfils take on Marin Cilic of Croatia followed by U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina against Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
The losses for Tsonga and Soderling meant that Spain's Fernando Verdasco was assured of the eighth and final spot in the November 22-29 ATP Tour Finals in London.
The other players qualified for that are Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko.
人教版小学英语三年级说课稿 Module5 Unit2-3
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牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 Let’s talk/Let’s play/Let’s make
人教版小学英语五年级说课稿 Lesson1
What would you like
UNIT4 I like… 评课
牛津小学英语五年级说课稿 Unit 2 Lesson 10
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 what are you doing
Unit5 Tasting说课
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牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 5B第九单元BC部分
Unit6 In a Nature Park B Let’s learn说课稿
Unit 9 The English Club 说课稿
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 I like football
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 Lesson 10
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 We love animals
小学英语第五册第四单元第一课说课稿
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 Unit 6 Holiday
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牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 Unit 9 Shopping第一课时
第六单元 doing housework 说课稿
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 Unit 2 My school bag B
第一单元Lesson1 说课稿
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 Unit5 B Let’s talk
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 Look at me Part B Let ' s learn
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 说课基本方法
Unit4 what can you do? 评课稿
牛津小学英语三年级说课稿 3AUnit 8
人教版小学英语五年级说课稿 Read and write,Let’s play,C Pronunciation
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