Tsonga claims semi-final place

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:17

The Frenchman needed just over an hour to come through his quarter-final tie 6-4 6-1 against the seventh seed from Belgium.

In a tense first set, Tsonga broke his rival in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead, but Vliegen, a former world number 30, immediately broke back.

But, as he served to level at 5-5, he conceded a break point and then double-faulted, before completely falling apart in the second set.

Number two seed David Ferrer is also through after he came through a potentially tricky encounter against Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets 7-5 6-2.

The Spanish world number 13 was hardly troubled against the Cypriot and, after a close first set, he broke in the third game of the second, before racing through to seal the win.

Next up for Ferrer is a meeting with Jeremy Chardy, who won the all-French tie against qualifier Sebastien de Chaunac 7-6 (7/4) 6-3.

Fifth-seed Chardy relied heavily on his first serve where he won 35 out of 38 points with his opponent failing to take advantage of any of his six break points as he slipped to defeat in an hour and 32 minutes.

There was an upset in the other quarter-final, though, with Frederico Gil knocking out fourth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6 (8/6) 6-3.

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