Tsonga Saves 2 M.P. To Defeat Nishikori

Local favourite and No. 11 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga trailed fifth seed Kei Nishikori for the majority of their third-round match at the BNP Paribas Masters, but showed remarkable fighting spirit to save two match points and prevail on Thursday in Paris, 0-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).

Next up for the Frenchman is fourth seed Milos Raonic, a three-set winner earlier in the day over No. 16 seed Pablo Cuevas. Their FedEx ATP Head2Head series is tied at 2-2, but the Canadian has won their past two matches.

Nishikori needed just 22 minutes to shut out Tsonga in the opening set, marking the first time the Frenchman lost a set 0-6 since last year’s Masters 1000 event in Shanghai (vs. Nadal). But Tsonga rebounded strongly by grabbing the break of serve in the second set to level the match.

The Japanese star broke Tsonga at 4-3 and held two match points on his serve in the next game, but the Frenchman erased them with gutsy tennis and eventually forced a final-set tie-break. Tsonga went on a four-point run to lead 4/1 and closed out the contest with his second match point in exactly two hours.

Fittingly, Tsonga also prevailed after receiving his last 0-6 set against Nadal in Shanghai.