LONDON CONTENDERS TSONGA, BERDYCH TO SQUARE OFF IN STOCKHOLM FINAL

Written by: Staff on 20th October 2012

LONDON CONTENDERS TSONGA, BERDYCH TO SQUARE OFF IN STOCKHOLM FINAL

epa03073612 France's Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in action against Kei Nishikori of Japan in their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 23 January 2012. Nishikori won the match in five sets 2-6,6-2,6-1,3-6,6-3. EPA/MARTIN PHILBEY |

Courtesy of ATP: http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2012/10/42/Stockholm-Saturday-Almagro-Tsonga-Berdych-Baghdatis.aspx

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will look to avenge his recent Shanghai Rolex Masters quarter-final loss against Tomas Berdych in the If Stockholm Open final on Saturday.

Berdych has a 2-1 record against Tsonga in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Both players are bidding to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, at The O2 in London, from 5-12 November.

“We played last week and it was a very close game,” said Berdych. “We both want to play our best tennis tomorrow. He plays very aggressively and I will try to focus on my game. If it works, then I will have a good chance of winning.”

Top seed Tsonga reached his fourth ATP World Tour final of the year (2-1) after he improved to 4-0 lifetime against seventh seed Marcos Baghdatis, the 2009 champion, after one hour and 50 minutes of play. Tsonga, who has held 32 of his 34 service games this week, was leading Baghdatis 6-4, 4-6, 5-2 when the Cypriot retired due to a left groin strain.

Second seed Berdych won 70 per cent of his service points and hit nine aces past Spain’s Nicolas Almagro for a 6-3, 6-2 win in 70 minutes to advance to his fifth final of the season (2-2).

“I know I can still improve and I hope I will play well tomorrow,” said Tsonga, who has a 9-6 record in tour-level finals. Berdych is 7-8 lifetime in title matches.