Tsonga outguns Berdych to book final spot

28 Nov, 2011

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga earned himself a place in the ATP World Tour finals by beating Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5 at London's O2 Arena on Saturday. Tsonga will face Swiss master Roger Federer in Sunday's showpiece. "It's just incredible. I was really tight, the first time I was tight like this in my career," the French sixth seed said.
"For me, it's already an amazing week and I will enjoy this final and try to play my best tennis against Roger. "All the time on Sunday we play. It's very good for me. I've played well the second part of the year and now I'm here at the end of the season and I did a lot of sacrifices, I worked a lot to be here so I'm really happy.
"It's going to be a good show." Tsonga got his first break of serve to go 4-2 up in the first set, with the Frenchman creating his break points with some clever groundstrokes to the baseline. Group A winner Berdych gave it plenty of fight but was out-hit by his opponent.
Tsonga then held serve to love and took the set 6-3 on his next service game, creating three set points with some fierce serving and clinching it when Berdych hit long.
The second set went with serve until the seventh game, when Group B runner-up Tsonga earned two break points. He won the game when Berdych double-faulted. Next game, Berdych got himself a couple of break points with a drop shot that Tsonga sent wide, and the Czech seventh seed won the next point when Tsonga hit the net to make it 4-4. Tsonga broke when Berdych hit the net to go 6-5 up in the second set.

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