Paris, November 13: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stayed in contention for a berth at the World Tour Finals by downing fellow Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the Paris Masters on Thursday.
Defending champion Tsonga, who needs to win the tournament to make the season finale later this month, which features the world’s top eight players, said his main goal was to capture another title at the Bercy hall.
“I’m not thinking about London, I’m thinking about defending my title, or rather winning a new one,” the world number nine told reporters.
Simon, clearly hampered by a niggling knee injury, was never in contention.
“It’s tough when your opponent is injured but I just tried to treat this as a normal match,” said eighth seed Tsonga, who goes on to meet either Rafael Nadal or Tommy Robredo.
France will have two players in the quarter-finals for the first time since 1992 after Gael Monfils posted a 6-4, 6-3 win over Julien Benneteau, who looked exhausted after his shock victory over world number one Roger Federer in the previous round.
Swede Robin Soderling also kept alive his slim hopes of making it to London by beating Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
World number seven Davydenko, seeded sixth in a tournament he won in 2006, secured a spot at the World Tour Finals despite losing, courtesy of fellow contendor Fernando Verdasco’s 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat by Croatia’s Marin Cilic.
The balding Russian becomes the seventh player to earn a ticket to London, with Spaniard Verdasco, Soderling, Chilean Fernando Gonzalez and Tsonga fighting for the last remaining berth.
Soderling goes on to meet world number three Novak Djokovic, who cruised past Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals in Paris for the first time.
“Robin has a big chance to qualify for London and he’s certainly going to give it his best,” Serbia’s Djokovic said of his next opponent.
“He’s a big server, he can play great tennis on different surfaces and he’s playing the year of his life, so it will be tough.”
—IST