Tsonga records 400th win, faces Goffin in final
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rained down ten aces, finishing off Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-4 in 72 minutes on Saturday to power into a second Rotterdam World Tennis final and record his 400th career win.
The French sixth seed will compete for his first title at the Ahoy stadium after finishing runner-up six years ago.
He next faces Belgian third seed David Goffin, who defeated French qualifier Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-1, 6-3 in 74 minutes, breaking four times.
Goffin will be playing his second final in as many weeks after losing to Grigor Dimitrov in the title match in Sofia.
The Belgian had already avenged that defeat by seeing off Dimitrov in the Rotterdam quarterfinals on Friday.
Goffin had not won a main draw match in Rotterdam before this breakthrough week and will reach a top 10 ranking for the first time after making the final.
“It was a good match, I played pretty solid on my serve, which is good for my game. When I’m serving like this I’m able to create a bit more on the return and be a bit more offensive,” Tsonga said.
Tsonga was unstoppable against Berdych, the 2014 champion and 2015 finalist playing his fourth semifinal at the Dutch event. Berdych came to the court with an 8-3 lead in the series, including wins in their last two meetings, one a Doha quarterfinal last month.