TENNIS NEWS FROM PARIS – TSONGA COMEBACK AGAINST BAGHDATIS SETS UP A FRENCH OPEN SHOWDOWN AGAINST GULBIS

Written by: Staff on 27th May 2016

French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros

TENNIS NEWS FROM PARIS - TSONGA COMEBACK AGAINST BAGHDATIS SETS UP A FRENCH OPEN SHOWDOWN AGAINST GULBIS

epa05330598 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France reacts as he plays against Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprust during their men's single second round match at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 26 May 2016.??? EPA/IAN LANGSDON |

By Ricky Dimon

In the sudden absence of Gael Monfils, the home fans at the French Open are still getting plenty of drama from their favorites. Three of their own played five-set thrillers in the second round, with two storming back from two sets to love down (Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Marcos Baghdatis and Gilles Simon outlasted Guido Pella). A much less heralded Frenchman, Mathias Bourgue, pushed world No. 2 Andy Murray to five before eventually succumbing.

Tsonga dropped his first two sets against Baghdatis on Thursday afternoon but roared back to prevail 6-7(6), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.

“Of course I prefer when it’s easier, but he did a good match,” the No. 6 seed said of Baghdatis. “He just played perfectly…in the first two (sets), and he pushed me to give the best of myself. So I’m really happy to win, because it was not easy.”

“I set up good tactics for the first two sets,” said the Cypriot, who reportedly attempted a ridiculous 68 drop-shots. “I didn’t want to give too much groove to the game. He’s a very good player on clay, so I wanted to break up the rhythm. I wanted to cut short the points. I didn’t want to remain far behind the baseline, so it worked out for the best for the first two sets.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Tsonga answered when asked if he got what he wanted from the crowd. “Just like during the first round, which is always the case–always the case here in Roland Garros. They are really good.”

He will hope for more of the same when he goes up against Ernests Gulbis for the sixth time in his career on Saturday. Tsonga is leading the head-to-head series 3-2, but Gulbis has prevailed in each of their two most recent encounters. Their only previous Grand Slam meeting came three years ago at Wimbledon, where Gulbis led 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 before getting a retirement. The Latvian got the job done again on the indoor hard courts of Marseille via a 7-6(5), 6-4 decision. This marks the first-ever clay-court contest between Gulbis and Tsonga.

Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in action against Andreas Seppi of Italy during their men’s single first round match at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, 24 May 2016. EPA/ETIENNE LAURENT

For the world No. 80, this has already been a surprisingly productive tournament. He had been just 5-10 for the season and had not yet won back-to-back matches at any tournament prior to his arrival in Paris. From out of nowhere, however, Gulbis has coasted past both Andreas Seppi and Joao Sousa in straight sets.

Both of these men have a history of success at Roland Garros. The best tournament of Gulbis’ career came in 2014, when he stunned Roger Federer on his way to the semifinals; Tsonga is a two-time semifinalist, including last year.