Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v James Ward – live! | Alan Gardner

• Hit F5 or use the autorefresh tool for the latest updates • Email your thoughts to alan.gardner.casual@guardian.co.uk 1st set: Tsonga 5-2 Ward* Having pulled himself up on his own serve, Ward tries to put pressure on Tsonga’s – but that’s easier said than done against such scud attacks. Tsonga holds to love. 1st set: *Tsonga 4-2 Ward Ward needs to hold to avoid going completely under and he starts well, racing to 40-0 thanks to a combination of good serves and a bit of luck – a rally that drew Tsonga into the net goes the Briton’s way when his cross-court shot clips the cord and foxes Tsonga. An unforced error gives Tsonga a glimpse but that’s all it is, Ward sending a backhand winner down the line. 1st set: Tsonga 4-1 Ward* Pshaw! That serve went straight through the space where Ward intended his racquet to be – it was so fast he couldn’t react in time. Ward fights back, though, forcing a couple of unforced errors from Tsonga – who then double faults to give the home favourite his first break point. An ace brings up deuce and then Tsonga concedes the advantage with an attempted drop shot that lands on the tramlines. The crowd are getting involved now, a few calls of “Go James” … but Tsonga quickly slams the door. Still, this is definitely more like the battling underdog stuff we were hoping for. 1st set: *Tsonga 3-1 Ward Now that will do nicely. Ward finds his service game, thumping down two aces and twice forcing Tsonga to send his returns long. He looks a little unsteady trading groundstrokes with the hulking Frenchman, but that was a decent hold. 1st set: Tsonga 3-0 Ward* Well, at least we can’t say we didn’t see this coming. Having played a game and a half yesterday, Ward is perhaps understandably a little creaky but Tsonga will not allow him time to ease into the occasion. You can sense Ward trying a little too hard … Tsonga is smoothly into the groove that took him past Nadal. He drops just one point on the way to a 3-0 lead. 1st set: *Tsonga 2-0 Ward In a pleasing symmetry, Ward’s first service game also begins with an ace. But nerves then appear to take a wee hold of the Briton, first catching the frame of his racquet to send the ball miles up and out, then missing a relatively simple volley at the net. He’s quickly 15-40 down and despite valiantly saving the first, he them dumps a backhand into the net. No favours from Tsonga here. 1st set: Tsonga 1-0 Ward* Tsonga serves an ace first up. I’ll give you fair warning, this could get grisly. But Ward manages to stay in the next two points, unobtrusively moving the Frenchman around the court to go 15-30 ahead. Tsonga up his tempo a wee bit, though, using his power to force mistakes from Ward and take the opening game. * Denotes serving next set 2.40pm: Tsonga is known as “Ali” on the circuit (though I still think “Heavyweight Kluivert” has a certain ring to it). If this was a boxing match, well, these two wouldn’t be allowed in the ring together. The element of surprise could be Ward’s best weapon, according to the experts. Good luck with that. Tsonga will serve first … 2.35pm: The players are wandering out under blue skies and fluffy white clouds. Tsonga served 25 aces against Nadal yesterday. “It’s one of my best weapons, I will try to use it a lot,” he says. Oh, Jo-Wilfried, you’ve given away your gameplan! While Tsonga cracks a joke with John Inverdale, pretending to mishear his question about letting Ward win, the Londoner looks a little more tense. “Obviously it’s been a great week, great to be here on semi-finals day,” he says, adding that he will go for it. Ward’s dad is a cabbie, which I imagine means he’s never been called papa, as John Lloyd has just referred to him in the commentary box. 2.25pm: Andy Murray has just tanned Andy Roddick’s Yankee backside in the first semi-final. History ahoy! As Kevin Mitchell neatly put it in his report for Saturday’s Guardian : “If the improbable final happens, Ward and Murray will be emulating John Olliff and Edward Avory who contested what was then called the London Championships in 1931. Mr Olliff won 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 and, no doubt, he and the loser were greeted later with understated glee in the members’ bar of this fine establishment until carriages arrived to take them on to a gentleman’s club to mull over the splendid feat that June of the Gloucestershire left-arm tweaker Charlie Parker, who had already raced to 100 wickets for the season – at the age of 48.” Ward and Tsonga have been having a hit (remember, never “hitting up”) over on the practice courts. They’ll be on next. Any thoughts on Ward’s run, the state of tennis, or indeed Charlie Parker’s outstanding 1931 season, would be most welcome. Preamble: Jamie Delgado; Martin Lee; Alex Bogdanovic; James Ward? In recent times, we’ve become accustomed to the occasional ripple in the pond of British male tennis underachievement. Ward, ranked 216th in the world but on the brink of his first ATP final (and with the possibility of making it the first all-British men’s final at Queen’s since 1931), is at the head of the queue to be the next plucky-Brit-you-think-you-may-have-heard-of-once. Though having nixed Stanislas Wawrinka, who took Andy Murray to five sets at the French Open, and Sam Querrey (as well as Adrian Mannarino, Juan Martin Del Potro’s conquerer), Ward is actually deserving of more than the usual cheap disdain polite condescension. He’s even won a few Davis Cup games, against no lesser opposition than the mighty Tunisia and Turkey. He’s only 24, and could yet be the next Tiger Tim. Or possibly Jeremy Bates. And that’s probably as much as we should ask for, frankly. His opponent is man-mountain Patrick Kluivert-lookalike (if you squint) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, ranked 17 in the world and fresh from ousting numero uno, Rafael Nadal. Did anyone bring the sticking plasters? Tennis Alan Gardner guardian.co.uk

Posted by on June 11, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.