Tsonga ends hopes of ‘struggling’ Federer while Ferrer cruises

DEJECTED Roger Federer conceded he was well beaten by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the Frenchman kept alive hopes of a home victory at Roland Garros.
France's Jo-Wilfried TsongaFrance's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Not since Yannick Noah 30 years ago has a home player lifted the Coupe des Mousquetaires, but Tsonga showed he will be a tough man to beat with a thumping 7-5 6-3 6-3 victory over Federer to reach his first semi-final at Roland Garros.

The second seed began the stronger and was an early break up, but he was pegged back to 4-4 and from there Tsonga was in control.

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Federer saved three set points, one with a superb backhand pass at full stretch, but there was more of the bad than the good from the Swiss yesterday and a shank gave the set to his opponent.

Tsonga has always been capable of brilliance but he and coach Roger Rasheed appear to have added consistency to his game and he was simply too good for Federer.

The 31-year-old said: “I thought he played great. He was in all areas better than me. That’s why the result was pretty clean. I think I struggled a little bit everywhere. To be honest, I’m pretty sad about the match and the way I played. But that’s how it goes.”

In the semi-finals Tsonga will meet fourth seed David Ferrer, the only other man in the tournament who has not dropped a set, after he ended the run of Tommy Robredo with a 6-2 6-1 6-1 thrashing.

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Federer’s defeat, meanwhile, means it will be the first time since Rafael Nadal played Tomas Berdych at Wimbledon three years ago that a grand slam final has been contested by a player outside the big four.

Tsonga said: “Right now what I need to do is to keep focused on what I have to do. The important thing for me is to go further.”

Serena Williams admitted her French Open quarter-final nightmares of the past briefly came back to haunt her before she fought back to defeat Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The Russian had three chances to go 3-0 up in the deciding set but could not take them and they proved the key moments as Williams clinched a 6-1 3-6 6-3 victory to reach the semi-finals in Paris for the first time in a decade.

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Four times in the intervening years she has lost in the last eight, including to Kuznetsova when the Russian went on to win the tournament in 2009.

In the semi-finals Williams will face last year’s runner-up, Sara Errani, who knocked out fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska win 6-4 7-6 (8/6) for her first win over a top-five opponent at the 29th attempt.

Errani said: “The match was very close all the time. It was not one thing that made the difference. I was lucky to close the second set, it could have been for her.”