Tsonga into last eight as Murray targets Roland Garros progress
HOME favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga surged into the French Open quarter-finals after beating Czech fourth seed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 yesterday.
Tsonga will play Kei Nishikori in the quarter final after the fifth seed dispatched Teymuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to become the first Japanese player in more than 80 years to reach the last eight at Roland Garros. World No2 Roger Federer and Gael Monfils were locked at one set apiece last night when play was suspended, while the winner will come up against 2014 Australian Open champion Stan Wawrinka, who dispatched Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
Britain’s Andy Murray, meanwhile, admitted he needs to hit a higher performance level in order to navigate his fourth round tie with Frenchman and world No45 Jeremy Chardy today.
“There’s a lot of things I can do better,” said world No3 Murray.
“Hopefully next week I’ll start to play some better tennis from the beginning of matches. I’m going to need to because the opponents get tougher.”