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.
GRE画龙点睛句子集锦
GRE写作易犯错误:逻辑混乱
GRE issue写作考生需要写什么
GRE写作题目分类:政治类
GRE写作机经的用法指导
GRE北美范文:影音材料和文字材料哪个重要
GRE写作分类题库之教育类
GRE写作:教育类写作素材一览
GRE作文备考规划:两大目标三大步骤
GRE作文:如何制定提纲?
短时间提高GRE写作能力
GRE写作高频话题 科技类
教你巧用GRE写作素材
GRE写作提分要注重逻辑思维能力
GRE写作中引用名人名言的必要性
GRE词汇整理:“恶意“的表达
GRE写作中的11种修辞手法
GRE作文考试衔接问题处理方法与技巧(下)
浅谈写作提纲对GRE写作的意义
GRE写作高频话题 历史类
GRE词汇整理:如何表达熬夜
如何提高GRE写作语言质量?
GRE写作必备核心句型
GRE写作必备常识
GRE写作高分核心句子
GRE issue写作素材分享
GRE写作如何算分?
GRE写作:如何写出漂亮的高分句子
GRE写作Issue和Argument的难度对比
GRE写作技巧之句子扩充
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |