By Chris Oddo |Saturday October 29, 2016
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga set up a clash with Andy Murray in the Vienna final by defeating Ivo Karlovic in three sets on Saturday.
Photo Source: Jan Kruger/AFP
Surprise, surprise. Suddenly France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has thrust himself into the Race for London. The Frenchman reached his first final of 2016 with a 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(6) victory over Ivo Karlovic at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna.
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Karlovic is knocked out of London contention with the loss.
Tsonga saved a match point at 5-6 in the third-set breaker with a bold serve-and-volley play. He knocked off a forehand volley and won the final two points to book his spot alongside Andy Murray in Sunday’s final.
Murray advanced when David Ferrer withdrew with a leg injury.
Murray enters the final on a 13-match winning streak and he has won 12 of 13 against Tsonga. The pair played a dramatic five-setter at Wimbledon this year with Murray winning 6-1 in the fifth. Tsonga last beat Murray at the Rogers Cup in 2014.
The Frenchman battled back from a set down to defeat Karlovic, but needed a third-set tiebreaker after failing to protect a break lead in the decider.
Tsonga improves to 35-15 on the season and 23-9 on hardcourts. The Frenchman will bid for his 13th career title.
With a win Tsonga would increase his point total to 2570 in the Race to London standings. The current cutoff is 2880 (Berdych), but Marin Cilic could raise that today with a win in Basel over Mischa Zverev.