Tsonga shocks Berdych, Nishikori and Wawrinka into quarters

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  • Marching on: Tsonga.

    It was a mixed day for the Parisian crowd at Roland Garros as they celebrated a remarkable victory for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but were left hanging as darkness suspended the fourth round clash between their home star Gael Monfils and Switzerland’s Roger Federer on a rain-interrupted day in Boulogne.

    Tsonga made a strong start to his match with world No4 Tomas Berdych and raced to a two-sets-to-love lead, facing just one break point and saving it.

    The French No 14 seed, who entered the encounter with a 2-6 head-to-head record against Berdych, looked on his way to a surprise straight sets victory as he served for the match at 5-4.

    But Berdych gave himself a lifeline, breaking serve for the first time in the match and he went on to force a tie-break. A brilliant backhand down the line winner gave Berdych two set points in the breaker and the Czech delivered on his second opportunity to take the match into a fourth set.

    Berdych went up 3-1 in the fourth but Tsonga recovered, winning the last five games of the match to reach the quarter-finals for the third time in four years and set up an interesting showdown with No 5 seed Kei Nishikori.

    “I was just trying to hang in there as much as I could,” said a dejected Berdych, who had made the quarter-finals or better in four of the previous five majors.

    “But definitely I was way far from my best tennis that I can play, and it’s a very disappointing loss for me. It’s not the time that I want to go home from this event. But yeah, that’s how it is. I need to take that.”

    Tsonga was given quite the reception in the players’ lounge which was full of friends and family who were understandably amazed by the Frenchman’s performance.

    “For me, it’s a privilege,” Tsonga said of playing in front of a home crowd. “I always enjoy to be here. They always push me. They also are there to remind that they are behind me all the time. It’s good to feel it.”

    Earlier, Nishikori became the first Japanese in the Open Era and second in history – apart from Jiro Satoh in 1931 and 1933 – to reach the quarter-finals at the French Open after posting a routine 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Russian Teymuraz Gabashvili.

    Eight-seeded Stan Wawrinka made sure he got off the court before more rain or darkness, blasting through his match with No 12 seed Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

    Wawrinka’s next opponent was not as lucky as Federer and Monfils were locked at 6-3, 4-6 before their match was suspended for darkness.

    Federer made the better start as he took the opening set 6-3. Monfils was broken when he was serving for the second set but recovered the next game to draw level and the pair will return to the court on Monday to complete the fourth round affair.

    “When it’s Gael or Roger, it doesn’t change much. I think they know how to deal with that. You have to see also what’s going to happen. I know if I have to play Gaël or Roger, it’s going to be a tough one,” said Wawrinka.

    Rain wreaked havoc with the schedule on Sunday as organisers were forced to cancel the matches of Maria Sharapova-Lucie Safarova and Garbine Muguruza-Flavia Pennetta.

    The early matches suffered long delays because of the weather but former champion Ana Ivanovic and Elina Svitolina managed to come through their rain-interrupted clashes.

    Ivanovic fought off a feisty Ekaterina Makarova 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals in Paris for the first time since she won the event in 2008.

    “To be honest, coming into the tournament I didn’t really expect that at all. But I really worked hard for each match. I worked hard even before the tournament to reach the quarterfinal again here. It feels amazing. Very proud the way I played in the third set,” said the Serbian world No 7.

    She next faces Ukrainian world No 21 Svitolina, who crushed home hopes with a 6-2, 7-6 (9) win over Alize Cornet to make her first career grand slam quarter-final.

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