By Alberto Amalfi | Wednesday, April 10, 2019
A recharged Jo-Wilfried Tsonga continues his rousing comeback stopping 2018 finalist Kyle Edmund, 7-6, 6-3, to reach the Marrakech quarterfinals.
Photo credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
Tennis is a numbers game.
Age and ranking are two numbers that don’t define Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
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The 116th-ranked Tsonga continued an impressive comeback campaign stoppling 2018 finalist Kyle Edmund, 7-6 (6), 6-3, in a hard-hitting Marrakech match.
Wild card Tsonga improved to 13-4 advancing to his fourth quarterfinal in seven tournaments this season. Tsonga will play Lorenzo Sonego, who produced a nearly identical scoreline.
The Italian qualifier held off Robin Haase, 7-6 (5), 6-3, to advance to his second career ATP quarterfinal and first since Budapest last April.
The 33-year-old Tsonga has looked revitalized after missing seven-and-aa-half months last year following left knee surgery.
Playing his trademark aggressive, attacking game, Tsonga opened the year reaching the Brisbane semifinals then captured his 17th career title in Montpellier.
The former Australian Open finalist is moving with more vigor these days and was quick to run around his backhand and hammer diagonal forehands.
In their first career meeting, Tsonga and Edmund traded heavy forehands throughout.
The pair traded mini breaks to open the tie breaker.
The third-seeded Edmund clubbed successive forehands to seize a 4-3 lead in the tie breaker before Tsonga turned the tables.
The 22nd-ranked Edmund fell to 4-5 on the season. Edmund has run into tough draws. He was routed by Roger Federer in Indian Wells and pushed defending Miami champion John Isner to two tie break sets before bowing last month.
A year ago, Edmund reached nine ATP quarterfinals and knocked off Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils in succession to win his first ATP title in Antwerp. Though Edmund won the Oracle Challenger last month, he has yet to reach a Tour-level quarterfinal this season.
It was a good day for French veterans.
Fourth-seeded Gilles Simon converted five of six break points deconstructing 90th-ranked Argentine Guido Andreozzi, 6-2, 6-2.
The 34-year-old Simon beat compatriot Julien Benneteau to take the title 11 years ago.