LONDON:
France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bludgeoned Roger Federer to a historic defeat to reach the Wimbledon semi-finals as the Swiss star suffered his first Grand Slam loss after being two sets up.
The sensational 3-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 result condemned six-time champion Federer to his second successive quarter-final defeat at the All England Club.
It will also create more doubts over the 29-year-old’s ability to add to his 16 Grand Slams – the last of which came at the 2010 Australian Open – and cast a shadow over his bid to match Pete Sampras’s record of seven Wimbledon titles.
For 26-year-old Tsonga, it will be his first Wimbledon semi-final spot where he will tackle world number two Novak Djokovic for a place in Sunday’s final.
“It was amazing,” said Tsonga.
“I played unbelievably. It’s never easy to come back against Roger. I’m so happy, it’s crazy,” said Tsonga, whose best Grand Slam performance was a runners-up spot at the 2008 Australian Open.
“He’s the biggest champion in the sport. He has achieved so much and is the best player in the world. To be two sets down and come back was unbelievable. I served really well.
“Against Djokovic I will have to come out and do the same again.”
Djokovic enters semi-finals
A subdued Djokovic ended the dream Wimbledon run of 18-year-old Australian Bernard Tomic with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory in the quarter-finals.
“I’m delighted to be through as it’s a great result but it was a very even match,” Djokovic said in a televised interview.
“I played very well to start with but I played one very bad service game and he got back into the match and from that moment on he was the better player."
“I had some very very difficult serve games which I managed to hold.”
The Serbian second seed, bidding for his first Wimbledon title and the world number one ranking, cruised through the opening set.
Qualifier Tomic grew in confidence though and using his patient and delicate groundstrokes to frustrate the Serb, he took the second set and opened up a 3-1 lead in the third.
Djokovic had struggled to deal with the low, slow sliced backhands of Tomic but was stunned into action and reeled off seven games in a row to take command.
Tomic, the youngest man to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals since Boris Becker in 1986, made a string of basic errors but out-of-the-blue he hit back in the fourth set, whipping a ferocious forehand down the line to seal another break.
“He is a very unpredictable player and has never been in a grand slam quarter-final before and he had nothing to lose and was hitting a lot of winners and I couldn’t predict where he was going,” said Djokovic.
“It was like a game of cat and mouse.”
Kvitova eyes Wimbledon glory
Czech eighth-seed Petra Kvitova set her sights on Wimbledon glory after reaching the semi-finals for the second successive year with a 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 win over Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova.
With the Williams sisters, world number one Caroline Wozniacki and second-seed Vera Zvonareva already knocked out, the race for the title has been thrown wide open.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 30th, 2011.
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