ATP World Tour Finals: Tomas Berdych ignites SF qualification race

By Ashley Williams

LONDON, England (TheSportsNEXT) November 7, 2012: World number six Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic ignited Group A qualification race on Wednesday when he defeated world number eight Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France by 7-5 3-6 6-1 in the ATP World Tour Finals played at the O2 Arena.

Tomas Berdych, who is seeded fifth at the ATP World Tour Finals, took an hour and 52 minutes to do away with seventh-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsogna who crashed out of the tournament after recording second straight defeat in front of the 17,587 fans at The O2.

This is the first time Tomas Berdych has won a match on British soil this season as the 27-year-old qualifier looks to achieve the pinnacles of success at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in his third attempt in as many years.

Tomas Berdych player will have to defeat Novak Djokovic for staying alive in the hunt on Friday while Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be up against Andy Murray in his final appearance in this year’s ATP World Tour Finals.

Talking about the calculations involved in his possible qualification, Tomas Berdych told ATP, “I don't like mathematics at all. I will try to play tennis, and that's it. I will try my best. But Novak just has shown how great he's playing right now and that he deserve to be the No. 1 player in the world. It's a huge challenge for me. But the other hand, he already has two wins, so let's see what's going to be in that last match.”

Tomas Berdych, who has won eight ATP World Tour titles in ATP career, hit 33 winners and eight aces, winning 16 of his 24 points at the net during his 60^th victory of the current season against 21 defeats and improved his record against the Top opponents to 7-12 in 2012.

On the other hand, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga committed 31 unforced errors and is now languishing at last place in Group A after witnessing defeats in his two matches against Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has now won 55 matches this year as against 24 losses in the ATP 2012 season. He had won the same amount of matches during the ATP 2011 season. This year, the Frenchman has lost 11 matches against Top 8 players.

Tomas Berdych Girlfriend Ester Satorova watching him play