Tsonga Faces Djokovic In Shanghai Masters Final

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached only his second final of the year after upsetting Rafael Nadal 6-4, 0-6, 7-5 at the Shanghai Masters on Saturday.

Novak Djokovic eased past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga with clinical precision on Sunday in Shanghai, 6-2, 6-4, to complete a convincing Asian sweep and raise his career title count to 57.

The former world number one, now seventh in the world, described his performance during the Asian Swing as a ‘very good warm-up for the beginning of next year.’ Nadal will look to continue to turn around his season at the Swiss Indoors in Basel, the Paris Masters, and the ATP World Tour Finals.

Murray only got 46 percent of his first serves into play and double-faulted six times, including on break point to give Djokovic a 3-1 lead in the second set.

Tsonga broke Nadal’s serve in the fifth game and then served out to wrap up the opening set although the Spaniard hit back in brutal fashion to take the match to a decider. I didn’t allow him to get into the rhythm, get into the match.

It was a second straight tournament Djokovic had won without dropping a set after he landed his sixth China Open title in Beijing last week. “He’s really consistent”, said the Frenchman. “Energy-wise, I was great. But knowing that I have a final tomorrow, I am very pleased and satisfied with how I played, but I have to focus already on the next one”.

Melo: “For sure I expected us to have good results”.

The win brought him the 57th title on the ATP tour and also helped Djokovic improve to 14-6 against Tsonga in their head-to-head rivalry. I felt like I’ve done everything right. Tsonga did managed to break in the fourth game, but the 10-time Grand Slam victor took just 31 minutes to wrest the first set. The courts get played on so much now, the indoor ones and the outdoor ones, and don’t get resurfaced much so I don’t use it that often. “I congratulate him. He was a little bit better than me and that’s why he is in the final”.

“I need to work on my phrases more because I’ve been saying the same thing for too many years”, he said with a laugh.

“I think I’ve played the best tennis ever in these two weeks in terms of back-to-back”. I have the support of the close ones, my wife, the most important one, but my brothers, my team.