Tsonga shocks Nadal to reach semi-finals

Rafa Nadal was eliminated from the ATP World Tour Finals last night after being outgunned by an inspired Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in an absorbing late-night battle at the O2 Arena.

In what had effectively become a straight knockout match, Frenchman Tsonga claimed a memorable 7-6, 4-6, 6-3 victory in the final Group B tie at the season-ender to join Roger Federer in tomorrow’s semi-finals.

It will be Tsonga’s first appearance in the semis, and he said: “I just played amazing. It was not easy for me to come here against Rafa but I did it tonight and I’m very happy.”

Tsonga’s power had Nadal repeatedly on the back foot in the first set although he could not make the breakthrough until the tiebreak when he produced some staggering tennis to move 6-2 ahead and clinched the opener with a booming ace.

Nadal’s staying power was evident in the second set as he refused to buckle in the face of Tsonga’s onslaught and he broke the Tsonga serve for the first time in the tenth game to take the match into a deciding set.

The majority of the 17,500-capacity crowd would have tipped Nadal at that stage but world No 6 six Tsonga broke the Mallorcan’s serve at 1-1 and then repeated the trick to march 5-2 ahead when a despondent Nadal netted a tame forehand. Tsonga wobbled when serving for the match, sending down two double faults to give Nadal one of the breaks back but he replied immediately to end the contest on the Spaniard’s serve with a ripping forehand after two hours and 42 minutes.

In the early game, defending champion Federer maintained his perfect record with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Mardy Fish. The world No 4 had already secured his place in the semi-finals with Tuesday’s stunning win over Nadal, while Fish was playing purely for pride after two defeats.

Federer felt his failure to reach the same heights he found against Nadal may have been down to the fact it was a dead rubber.

He said: “It’s a matter of trying to do the exact same thing knowing I don’t really need to win, but maybe because I know that somewhere you just don’t play the same way.

“But I still have to give credit to Mardy. The first set wasn’t as one-sided as the score suggested, and the second set he played great.

“He really started to zone in on many shots. I thought he was able to keep that up in the third set. So I was happy to get the crucial break early in the third and maybe cruise a bit more.”