Berdych and Isner Set Up Finals Clash in Winston-Salem

By Erik Gudris

(August 24, 2012) -- Defending champion John Isner was forced to three sets by top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga while Tomas Berdych was just a bit better when it mattered against Sam Querrey in the semis of the Winston-Salem Open.

The first semifinal between No. 1 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and local fave No. 3 seed John Isner turned into an entertaining three set match. Isner saved the only break point against him midway through the first set with a 137mph ace and then later broke Tsonga to go up 5-4. Isner served out the first set to love 6-4.

Isner missed on several early chances to break Tsonga in the second set while the Frenchman, at 4-3, stepped up his game to break Isner for 5-3. Tsonga used all the variety in his game including a backhand winner, drop volley winner and then a service ace to force a deciding set.

While Tsonga looked very casual on court including joking with the chair umpire about a line call, Isner appeared tense for most of the match as he felt the pressure of trying to win for his home crowd. Early in the final set, Isner held 0-40 on Tsonga's serve only to see the Frenchman hit several world class forehand winners to force the game to deuce and eventually hold for 2-all.

With a tiebreak looking inevitable as each man held serve, Isner earned his first match points up 6-5 only to watch Tsonga ace him on the first one while Isner hit a running forehand wide on the second one. Tsonga eventually forced a tiebreak but an early forehand error from him gave Isner a mini-break lead that he held onto for the duration of the tiebreak as with a final volley winner, Isner earned a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3) win for a return trip to the finals.

It was Isner's 40th win of the year and his 30th win in North America this season. Isner is now 17-3 since Wimbledon.

Berdych Reaches Second Final of 2012

The second semi featured No. 2 seed Tomas Berdych against No. 7 seed Sam Querrey. And while both men are similar in that they are tall, powerful ball-strikers, Berdych seemed to do everything just a bit better against his American opponent in their first meeting in four years.

Querrey quickly jumped out to an early 2-0 lead to start the match but Berdych eventually got himself going to break Querrey back at 4-all. Berdych then started reading Querrey's serve much better using his returns to force errors from the American including on set point allowing Berdych to close it out 6-4.

Berdych, with a deft forehand down the line pass, broke to go up 2-0 himself in the second set but Querrey responded with power tennis of his own along with hitting a volley winner to break back for 3-2.

Both men double faulted on break point against them in their next service games to trade breaks again, but it was Berdych who raised his level just enough as he hit a forehand winner to break Querrey again for 5-3. Berdych had no problems closing out the match, once again with a forehand winner, to seal a 6-4, 6-3 victory.

Heading into tomorrow's final, Berdych leads the overall head to head 2 to 1 against Isner with Berdych winning their last meeting at Roland Garros in 2010.

(Photo Credit: Chang Photography)