TSONGA WINS OPEN 13

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has won Open 13 by defeating Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in the final match. Tsonga defeated Berdych by 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4. This was the 10^th ATP title won by Tsonga in his career.

This was Tsonga’s second victory over Berdych in six meetings. Berdych was seeded higher than Tsonga in this tournament. The Czech player was given top seed, while, Tsonga was the third seeded player.

In the post match press conference, Tsonga said, “It was a very tough match and I struggled at times, but, I kept fighting. When you pull off victories in such close matches, it does give you a lot of satisfaction.”

“In this tournament, my performance was really fine. I didn’t get an easy draw. I had to beat some fantastic players to reach the finals.”

“In today’s match, I was not serving that well in the first set and didn’t play well from the baseline either. But, I started getting it right in the later parts of the second set and then, in the third set, I didn’t make too many mistakes.”

In the opening set, Berdych didn’t drop his serve even once and broke Tsonga’s serve in the 6^th game to seal the set by 6-3. At that point I was looking at sticking my Unibet bonus bet on a Berdych win, but thankfully I baulked at the odds on offer.

In the second set, there were no serve breaks in the first 12 games and the set was extended into the tie breaker. Tsonga was trailed by 5-6 in the tie breaker, but, he bounced back and eventually, pulled it off to take the match into the third set.

In the final set, Tsonga got the breakthrough in the third game and took a lead of 2-1. The serve hold in the next game took him ahead by 3-1. The Frenchman then held his serve in the remaining games quite comfortably and won the match.