Tsonga reaches quarter-finals in Australian Open

Twelfth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open tennis with a tight 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 fourth-round win over Daniel Evans here on Sunday.

The 2008 runner-up is into the quarter-finals here for the first time since 2013, according to atpworldtour.com.

Tsonga will next play fourth seed Stanislas Wawrinka for a place in the last four.

Evans was competing in the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time.

The Briton continued his hot form against Tsonga, striking first in the tie-break by taking a 3-1 lead and holding his slight advantage the rest of the way.

Tsonga responded brilliantly by racing to a 4-0 lead in the second set and ultimately levelling the match at one set each.

The Frenchman broke Evans immediately to start off the third set. Little separated the pair, but that early advantage was all Tsonga needed to take a commanding lead.

The fourth set was nearly identical, with Tsonga grabbing an early break and comfortably serving out the match to love to prevail in two hours and 53 minutes.

The 31-year-old Tsonga, who was runner-up here in 2008, is bidding to reach his first major semi-final since The the 2015 French Open, where he fell to Wawrinka.

--IANS

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