One half of the men’s final at the 2015 French Open is set after No. 8 seed Stan Wawrinka downed No. 14 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday, 6-3, 7-6(1), 7-6(3), 6-4. Tsonga was the last hope for a French winner at Roland Garros this year, but he couldn’t keep up with Wawrinka in the end.
French Open results 2015: Stan Wawrinka into final after win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, other semi-final delayed
The hope of a Frenchman winning this year’s tournament at Roland Garros was extinguished when Stan Wawrinka took down Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets on Friday.
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The other semifinal between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray was delayed to Saturday. Djokovic leads that match 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 3-3. It will be interesting to see how that one plays out, given that Djokovic held the advantage early but Murray was playing his best tennis shortly before the delay.
Wawrinka looked dominant in the first set, breaking Tsonga multiple times to take it, 6-3. Tsonga didn’t look like himself early on, appearing somewhat sluggish. He was unable to contend with Wawrinka’s dominant forehand winners throughout that set, but he started to right the ship into the second. That set went to a tiebreak, which Tsonga dominated to make it a set apiece heading into the third.
Neither player established any kind of dominance in the third set, and it eventually went to a tiebreak as well. There was a brilliant 20-shot rally early on, where Wawrinka had Tsonga on the ropes but he made an unforced error, prematurely ending that particular rally. Wawrinka’s returns were simply better, though, and Tsonga himself made multiple errors, which led to Wawrinka ultimately taking the tiebreak and the set to go up 2-1 heading into the fourth.
Wawrinka went into the fourth set looking as good as ever, and he broke Tsonga, though the Frenchman certainly helped him by double faulting. Tsonga looked like he might break back though, with a double break point opportunity on Wawrinka’s next serve, but mistakes sank him and Wawrinka took a 2-0 lead in the fourth. From there, it was simple back-and-forth, with Wawrinka serving for the match at 5-4 in the fourth. He took that service game without issue and with it, the match.
The women’s final is set for Saturday, when top seed Serena Williams will take on No. 13 seed Lucie Safarova. Williams bested No. 23 Timea Bacsinszky in the semifinals, and Safarova took down No. 7 Ana Ivanovic.
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