Jo Wilfried Tsonga takes on Mardy Fish this evening in a last 16 clash that has the attributes to be a classic but may just fail to live up to the high expectations.
Mardy Fish has been in tremendous form this summer and whilst the media have focused on his form on the US swing where he has won in Atlanta, made the final in Montreal and the semi-final in Cincinnati he also made the lat eight at Wimbledon where he took a set off Nadal and generally made life tough for the Spaniard. So far at Flushing he has breezed into the last 16 without dropping a set, however some commentators felt that his performance against Anderson on Saturday night was a bit laboured and that he could be feeling the effects of a long hot US summer.
Tsonga is a class act and on his day he can sit adjacent to the top table that only has room for four. He also had a good time at SW19 making the semi-final after taking out Fedex in a five set thriller in the quarters. On that occasion he lost the first two sets so he demonstrated that he had added bottle to his undoubted talent. In Cincinnati he again beat Federer so a quarter final match up with the great man will hold no fears.
This one could be close but Tsonga looked on the money against Verdasco and like Fish the umpire hasn’t called fourth set in any of his opening three games. He looks to good for Fish.
