Friday, January 23, 2009

Tsonga leads French into last 16

AUSTRALIAN OPEN
Venue: Melbourne Park Date: 19 January-1 February
Coverage: BBC Red Button, BBC One & Two (including all Andy Murray matches), Radio 5 Live sports extra, BBC Sport website (Red Button coverage streamed on website throughout fortnight)
Saturday: Murray v Melzer live on BBC2 (streamed on website for UK users only) and BBC 5 Live sports extra from 0830 GMT. Highlights on BBC1 at 1300 GMT

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Tsonga (above), Monfils and Simon are all through to the fourth round

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga dispatched unseeded Israeli Dudi Sela to complete a trio of French victories on day six of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Fifth seed Tsonga's 6-4 6-2 1-6 6-1 victory came on the back of a solid display by 12th seed Gael Monfils, who beat Nicolas Almagro 6-4 6-3 7-5.

Monfils will now play fellow countryman and sixth seed Gilles Simon, who beat Croatian Mario Ancic 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 6-2.

Spanish 14th seed Fernando Verdasco hammered Radek Stepanek 6-4 6-0 6-0.

Verdasco will next face either British fourth seed Andy Murray or Austrian Jurgen Melzer, who meet at 0830 GMT, while top seed Rafael Nadal will play Tommy Haas later.

Spaniard Nadal is aiming for a first hard-court Grand Slam title having crushed Croatia's Roko Karanusic on Thursday.

I had little tricks, but with a lot of luck

Gael Monfils
Saturday's action on the Margaret Court Arena concludes with a chance for a fourth French man to reach the last 16, when 24th seed Richard Gasquet faces Chilean 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez.

Ninth seed James Blake knocked out Russian 18th seed Igor Andreev in four sets, the American coming through 6-3 6-2 3-6 6-1 to set up a fourth round clash with Tsonga.

Tsonga survived a third-set lapse to overcome Israeli qualifier Sela, having been cruising at two sets to love when he seemed to lose concentration and allow Sela back in the match.

The 2008 runner-up quickly regrouped and overwhelmed the Israeli in the fourth set to win a highly entertaining match.

"I felt really good on the court today," he said. "I was happy to win - we played a great match."

Monfils, 22, dominated 17th seed Almagro early in their match, breaking the Spaniard once in the first set and twice in the second to open up a 2-0 lead.

The third set hinged on a disagreement between Almagro and the umpire.

Almagro argued for some minutes without success over an attempted Hawkeye challenge, and appeared distracted when he went back to serve, promptly losing the game to 15 to hand the match to Monfils.

"I think I play a good game again today. I was competing hard," said Monfils.

"I think everything was great. I mean, the concentration, physically also. So I'm very happy.

"(I had) little tricks, but with a lot of luck. I mean, it's part of the game."

Simon was put through his paces by Ancic in the first set and needed to keep his focus in the tie-break.

But after Simon won that, Ancic seemed to lose his edge and the Frenchman wrapped up the last two sets comfortably.

"It was difficult in the first set because every time I got a break I'd then lost my serve," said Simon.

"The match was really good for my confidence though. Mario is a very tough competitor so I'm happy to win, but it will be a hard match against Gael who is a very, very good player.

"When he focuses he plays well and when only 16 people are left in the draw, every match is going to be hard."

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