By Chris Oddo | Friday October 27, 2017
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his seventh consecutive match on Friday in Vienna by defeating top-seeded Alexander Zverev in straight sets, 7-6(6), 6-2. The Frenchman is making a last ditch push to reach next November’s World Tour Finals and he moved to within 415 points from Pablo Carreno Busta, with the potential to pick up 320 more if he can win his fifth title of the year in Vienna.
Watch: Dzumhur Takes Heat for Tanking a Point in Vienna
A London bid may be the furthest thing from his mind but Tsonga’scurrent form says otherwise. Tsonga was the fresher, fitter player down the stretch as he flummoxed Zverev in the second set to earn his seventh win over a Top 20 player in his last eight such matches.
Tsonga absolutely hammered Zverev’s second-serve, winning 15 of 17 points against the German’s second offering, including all ten in the second set. He broke three times on nine opportunities and finishes with 19 winners against 15 unforced errors to improve to win for the second time in three lifetime tussles against Zverev.
Zverev, who was clearly fatigued and dropped his level decidedly after losing the first-set tiebreaker, drops to 54-19 on the season. The 20-year-old owns six titles on the season and has already qualified to make his debut appearance at the World Tour Finals in November.
Tsonga improves to 14-3 lifetime at Vienna, and the 2011 champion will face Philipp Kohlschreiber for a spot in the final.
Kohlschreiber eased past Diego Schwartzman, 7-5, 7-6(6) to reach his fourth career semifinal at Vienna.
The other semifinal at Vienna will feature France’s Lucas Pouille against Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund. The 23-year-old Pouille improved to 3-1 lifetime against Richard Gasquet with a 7-6(5), 6-1 win, while Edmund reached his third semifinal of 2017 with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.