Wimbledon 2014: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the mood to take on top seed Novak Djokovic

 

Kevin Garside
Friday 27 June 2014 18:08 EDT
Comments
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Jimmy Wang to set up a fourth-round match with Novak Djokovic
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Jimmy Wang to set up a fourth-round match with Novak Djokovic (Getty)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The gift of a towel to a spectator was a nice touch by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after smashing the ball into her torso. The next prize he must claim for himself, and that is the scalp of No 1 seed Novak Djokovic.

Tsonga set up next week’s engagement with a 6-2, 6-2, 7-5 third-round victory over Jimmy Wang. It is a pity to lose that name from the draw but by way of compensation Tsonga gave us the stellar match-up of the fourth round.

“I think it’s going to be a new opportunity for me against one of the best players in the world,” Tsonga said. “I think I need to play against those players. So it’s going to be a good match for me.”

This was the fifth day on the spin that Tsonga had appeared on court. At least he closed out in straight sets, two hours quicker than the three and a half it took to negotiate Sam Querrey in the previous round.

Tomas Berdych became the biggest casualty in the men’s draw in a straight-sets defeat to Marin Cilic. The Czech sixth seed slipped out to Cilic 7-6, 6-4 7-6 in a match that finished at 9.36pm, as the light faded from Court Three.

Lleyton Hewitt fell agonisingly short in his disrupted five-set marathon against Jerzy Janowicz. Only Pete Sampras has won more five-setters than Hewitt, 29 to 26, and going into the final set the Australian veteran fancied it might just be his day.

Resuming a set down, Hewitt fell further behind before rallying to take the big-serving Pole into a decider. There the fairytale ended for the 2002 Wimbledon champion, going down in three hours and 47 minutes 7-5, 6-4, 6-7, 4-6, 6-3.

Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov proved his new-found athleticism by beating Alexandr Dolgopolov in a grinding five-set victory.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in