Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has been given the top seed in the Apia International Sydney tennis tournament which is going to be played from 6th to 12th of January at Sydney, Australia. Tsonga’s compatriot and no. 10 player in the world, Richard Gasquet has been given the second seed.
Tsonga has had a decent last season. He won two titles i.e. Qatar Exxonmobil Open and Moselle Open. Apart from this, Tsonga also reached the final of a couple of tournaments.
On the other hand, Richard Gasquet managed to win only one title in the last season i.e PTT Thailand Open. Just like Tsonga, Gasquet also made his way into the final of two tournaments.
Confirming his participation in the tournament, Gasquet said, “I am looking forward to take part in this wonderful tournament. There are some big names participating in this competition including Tsonga and John Isner. So, it’s not going to be easy for me to go all the way through.”
“The last season wasn’t a great one for me. It was very disappointing that I managed to win only one title in the entire year. I want to do far better in the upcoming season. I have been training hard and working on the weak areas with my coach. Hopefully, there would be a considerable improvement in my performance in the upcoming season.”
One of the tournament officials of the Apia International Sydney Tennis tournament, Caig Watson, was also present in the press conference. He said, “We are delighted that quite a few top ranked players have signed for us this time around. I am sure that the spectators will see some wonderful tennis here.”
Apart from Gasquet and Tsonga, some other top quality players who will participate in this tournament are Marinko Matosevic, John Isner and Fernando Verdasco.
Richard Gasquet has defeated Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the semi final of the Thailand Open. At one point of time, Gasquet was on the verge of losing the match. He lost the first set and was trailed in the second set by 0-4. But, the Frenchman bounced back remarkably well from that stage and won the match by 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. Gasquet took 1 hour and 56 minutes to defeat Nieminen and make his way into the final.
The first five games of the first set went with the serve and the scorecard was saying 3-2 in the favour of Nieminen at the end of the fifth game. The Finnish player got a breakthrough in the sixth game and then, held his service in the seventh and the ninth game to win the first set by 6-3.
Gasquet was off to a very poor start in the second set. His service was broken in the first and the third game and he lost the first four games in a row. It seemed that the Finnish player would pull off a great upset. But, Gasquet managed to sneak a breakthrough in the sixth game and won the next three games to reduce the lead to 4-3.
Nieminen held his service in the eighth game and the score became 5-3. Nieminen was just one game away from winning the match. But, Gasquet didn’t let him win any game after that in the second set. He won the last four games and won the second set by 7-5.
In the final set, Gasquet played high quality tennis. He got breakthroughs in the fourth and the eighth game and won the final set by 6-2. In the post match press conference, Gasquet said, “I didn’t play well at all in the first set and in the earlier part of the second set. But, I backed myself and that breakthrough in the sixth game of the second set really helped me to regain my confidence.”
In the final match, Gasquet will take on his compatriot Gilles Simon.
Richard Gasquet has defeated Bardley Klahn of USA in the second round of the US Open. Gasquet won the match in the straight sets by 6-3, 6-3, 6-1.The Frenchman looked in sublime form and he flattened the local boy with his fabulous shots. Klahn, who was given the entry through wildcard, allowed Gasquet to dominate him by making a number of unforced errors. Gasquet took just 2 hours to knock Klahn out of the tournament.
Gasquet, who has been given the 13th seed in the competition, made a very good start to the match. He broke the service of Klahn in the second game of the first set and won the first three games in a row to make the score 3-0. Klahn needed to get a breakthrough to make a comeback in the set, but, he didn’t get that. Gasquet held his serves in the remaining games to win the first set by 6-3. In the second set, both the players held their service in the first six games and the scores were levelled at 3-3 at the end of the sixth game. The Frenchman managed to sneak a breakthrough in the seventh game to take a lead of 4-3. Thereafter, he served out the 8th and the 10th game to grab the second set by the same margin of 6-3. Kalhn got three breakpoints in the second set, but, he didn’t manage to capitalize on any of those breakpoints.
In the third set, Gasquet was in a furious mood. He broke Kalhn’s service twice and sealed the third set by 6-1 to win the match. Gasquet smashed a total of 28 winners including 6 aces in the match. In the third round, Gasquet will play against Steve Johnson of USA.
Richard Gasquet has defeated Robin Haase of Netherlands in the first round of the men’s tennis singles tournament of London Olympics. Gasquet won the match in straight sets by 6-3, 6-3. Haase is the highest ranked Netherlands player in the competition, but, he was not even close to his best in the match. He played some loose shots in the match and let Gasquet dominate him. This was the first match between Gasquet and Haase. Gasquet kept Haase under pressure right from the start of the match.
Gasquet got a break through in the fourth game of the first set to take a lead of 3-1. He held his service in the following game to make the score 4-1. He kept that lead till the end of the first set and won the first set by 6-3. Haase started a bit better in the second set. In the first five games of the second set, both the players held their service and the score was 3-2. But, after that, Gasquet didn’t give the Dutch player any chance. He broke the service of Haase in the seventh and the ninth game and won the next four games consecutively to win the second set by 6-3. Gasquet played amazing tennis in the match and looked in fine form.
Gasquet was delighted to go into the second round. In the post match press conference, he said that it’s nice to start the competition on a good note. As per Gasquet, he has always enjoyed playing at Wimbledon. It is a wonderful place to play tennis. On the other hand, Haase was pretty disappointed after being knocked out from the very first round. However, he congratulated Gasquet and said that Gasquet played better than him. So, he deserved to win. In the second round, Gasquet will play against Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has defeated Feliciano Lopez of Spain in the third round of men’s tennis singles tournament of London Olympics. With this victory, Tsonga has reached into the quarter finals. Tsonga won the match in the straight sets by 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Tsonga is the highest ranked French player in the competition and he played brilliant tennis in the match. He took just 69 minutes to knock Lopez out of the tournament. This was the fourth match between these two players and Tsonga has won all the four matches. Read more »
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has been defeated by his fellow countryman, Jeremy Chardy, in the second round of the Rogers cup. Tsonga is ranked sixth in the official rankings of WTA and he was given third seed in this competition. But, he has been stunned by a player who is much lower in rankings than him.
Chardy defeated Tsonga in the straight sets by 6-4, 7-6(4). Tsonga has been in good nick in the last few months and he played well in the Olympics as well. He won the silver medal in the men’s doubles competition by playing with Michael Llodra. He was considered as one of the top favourites to win the Rogers Cup, but, he wasn’t even able to go to the third round and was flattened by Chardy. Read more »
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December 19, 2012 2:01 pm | 
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