Klizan Stuns Tsonga; Nishikori Advances

Written by: Staff on 30th August 2012

Klizan Stuns Tsonga; Nishikori Advances

epa03375576 Kei Nishikori of Japan hits a return to Tim Smyczek of the US during their match on the fourth day of the 2012 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 30 August 2012. The US Open runs through Sunday 09 September 2012. EPA/LARRY W. SMITH |

World No. 52 Slovak Martin Klizan claimed the biggest win of his career Thursday when he upset fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 at the US Open.

“I was coming to the match to play a very solid game,” said Klizan. “I wanted to play really good tennis to play with the top star player. I played very, very well today. I was concentrating each point and I won; I’m very happy that I did.”

Klizan outmuscled the powerful Frenchman with his hard-hit lefty forehand, clipping 32 winners. Coached by countryman and former World No. 6 Karol Kucera, Klizan stared down a Tsonga comeback during a rollercoaster fourth set.

After racing to a 4-0 lead, Klizan found himself serving at 3-4 deuce. He held his nerve – and serve – before breaking Tsonga in the final game of the match to claim just his fourth match win at Grand Slam level.

“Today I was not in good shape,” said Tsonga. “I didn’t play good tennis. It seemed like I couldn’t hit the ball enough hard to put my opponent out of position. I don’t really know why it was like this today, but sometimes it’s happen with me.”

Klizan will meet another Frenchman in his third-round match, No. 32 seed Jeremy Chardy, who dismissed Australian Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. Chardy recently reached the quarter-finals of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, upsetting Andy Roddick and Andy Murray before falling to Juan Martin del Potro.

French No. 16 seed Gilles Simon advanced to the US Open third round for a fifth straight year as he beat Chinese Taipei’s Jimmy Wang 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

In an earlier result Thursday, Japan’s No. 17 seed Kei Nishikori enjoyed an easy 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 win over American Tim Smyczek. “He was struggling on his serve, which made it easier to attack his second serve. That was one of my tactics today,” said Nishikori.

He will take a 2-1 FedEx ATP Head2Head record into his next match against Croatian Marin Cilic. The 12th seed was extended to a fifth set for a second straight match before prevailing against German Daniel Brands 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 4-6, 7-5.

No. 11 seed Nicolas Almagro rallied from behind to edge German Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.

Topics: Japanese tennis news, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Kei Nishikori, Klizan, Tennis News, Tim Smyczek, US Open 2012