Only in Italy, I suppose, could Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Juan Martin del Potro play second fiddle to Andreas Seppi, but such was the case at the Foro Italico this evening. Seppi had the Roman crowd in an uproar during his comeback win over Stan Wawrinka, so much so that there wasn’t much energy left for the battle between the two Top Tenners that followed.
Their match, watched by a quiet, scattered audience, started slowly. Tsonga and del Potro laid back well behind the baselines and traded ground strokes for the first four games. The first break came at 2-2, and it went to del Potro, who took advantage of a Tsonga double fault at deuce by hitting a clean backhand pass on the next point to break. It would turn out to be one of the last stinging backhands he would come up with all day. In the next game, del Potro missed a series of routine shots from that side. After the last one, which gave the break of serve back, he ripped at the tape that was wrapped around his left knee in frustration.
The knee didn’t get any better, and neither did del Potro’s game. Serving at 4-5 in the first, he opened with a loose forehand into the net. After another del Potro backhand error a few points later, Tsonga suddenly found himself at set point. He rifled a backhand down the line that caught the tape. It felt like del Potro had been ambushed, but the Frenchman had been the better player all the way. He was cracking his backhand, while del Potro finished the set with 15 errors against just six winners.
It was all Tsonga from there. At one stage he won 12 of 13 points, and he broke for 2-0 on yet another missed backhand by del Potro. By this point, the Argentine was having his knee looked at on the sideline, and his movement appeared to be hindered on court. He went for big shots, and mostly missed them, early in rallies, and Tsonga had little trouble wrong-footing him for winners. At 1-3, del Potro showed a slight sign of life, but when he wound up for a midcourt backhand, he shanked it 10 feet wide. The sign of life, and his week in Rome, were over.
Three games later, Tsonga had moved on, 6-4, 6-1, to play Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. Tsonga holds a 5-4 edge in their rivalry, though four of those wins came in 2008 and ’09. Del Potro didn’t put up the expected resistance, but if Tsonga can hit his backhand the way he did today, he’s got a shot.