Jo Wilfried Tsonga Retains Metz Title

Written by: Staff on 23rd September 2012

Jo Wilfried Tsonga Retains Metz Title

epa03372608 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France hits a return to Karol Beck of Slovakia during their match on the second day of the 2012 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 28 August 2012. The US Open runs through Sunday 09 September 2012. EPA/PETER FOLEY |

(Original Link: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2012/09/38/Metz-Sunday-Tsonga-Retains-Title.aspx)

World No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stormed to a repeat victory at the Moselle Open in Metz on Sunday, dismissing Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-1, 6-2 in just 50 minutes. One year ago, Tsonga had beaten Ivan Ljubicic in the final of this ATP World Tour 250 indoor hard-court tournament.

Victory for Tsonga takes the Frenchman to 2,905 points in the Race For London. Tsonga is currently just within the qualifying positions for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with four places still up for contention.

In an emphatic serving display, the top-seeded Tsonga surrendered just six points behind his delivery and fired seven aces. He converted four of his six break point chances on Seppi’s serve to improve to a 3-1 lead over the Italian in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series.

The 27-year-old Tsonga captured his ninth ATP World Tour title and second of the season, following victory at the QatarExxonMobil Open in Doha in January (d. Monfils). The right-hander, who has a 45-17 match record this year, was also a semi-finalist at Wimbledon (l. to Murray), Marseille (l. to del Potro) and Winston-Salem (l. to Isner).

The 28-year-old Seppi was bidding to win his second title of the season after triumphing in Belgrade (d. Paire). He also finished runner-up to Andy Roddick in the Eastbourne final and dropped to a 2-3 mark in ATP World Tour finals. He suffered his 49th loss against a Top 10 player in 55 attempts.

“I want to congratulate Jo because he played too well today,” said Seppi. “His serve was impressive and there’s very little I could do. Unfortunately, this is the way it goes sometime indoors, matches go by really fast without being able to do anything. It was a great week for me and overall I am happy to have reached the final here.”

Topics: Ivan Ljubicic, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Metz tenni snews, Seppi tennis news, Sports, Tennis News