Tsonga Slips Past Stepanek–Advances to Quarterfinals

Written by: Staff on 13th March 2012

Tsonga Slips Past Stepanek--Advances to Quarterfinals |

Indian Wells, CA – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to shake off some very close line calls and a tricky opponent in Radek Stepanek during Tuesday’s day session at the BNP Paribas Open. The Frenchman was given a berth into the third round when Michael Llodra retired in their opening round match. Tsonga fought through the early portions of the match but a little bit of rust in his game showed as he was unable to capitalize in a first set tiebreaker. Stepanek, to his credit, plays a very interesting game of deception and no-pace shots. Tsonga, who’s one of the hardest hitters in the game, had to be very careful during the entire match not to over hit – A few of his forehand errors in the first set tiebreaker turned out to be the deciding factor in the set.

An hour and a half into the match however, Tsonga’s physicality took over, and although Stepanek was forcing him to run alot, it was Stepanek who blinked first, giving Tsonga the first break of the match. With that lead, Tsonga was able to hold on despite a shaky service game to take the second set.

Stepanek’s greatest strength was his ability to mix up the spins of the ball and stimy his French opponent with off-speed shots. However, once he began to tire, Tsonga’s solid baseline grinding was able to win out. Stepanek’s last ditch effort was to serve and volley, and it was interesting to see how Tsonga dismantles attacking opponents – his physical attributes allow him to run down volleys, place low-passing-shots, then scamper to the net to easily put away the returned volley from Stepanek. There was little to no hope for Stepanek as he gave up two breaks of serve in the third set and Tsonga finally powered his way to victory 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-2. The greatest lesson fans can take away from this match is the fact that power didn’t play the biggest factor in the first set, it was actually the variety from Stepanek that forced Tsonga to hit up on the ball or play the more difficult shots that won out. But again with most of the ATP tour matches, endurance and speed becomes to ultimate factor to winning and Tsonga is one of the best in the world in those departments.

Topics: BNP Paribas Open, Jo Wilfried Tsonga