Tomic beats Monfils to reach Kooyong tennis final, Nishikori upsets Tsonga
Bernard Tomic upset Gael Monfils 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 to advance to the final of the Kooyong Classic.
Tomic will now face the winner of the match between Mardy Fish and Jurgen Melzer.
"I'm getting confidence this week for the Open and hope to carry it through," said Tomic. "We came here for a good week and that's what I'm having."
Monfils said he was troubled by a recurrent knee problem.
"I need to take care of my knee all of the time, I can hurt it with my movement," said the Frenchman. "It was also cold at the start and then hot and my knee doesn't really like that."
Kei Nishikori defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 1-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Nishikori was drafted into the eight-man field at the four-day invitational event after Milos Raonic withdrew because of illness.
Tsonga made a lengthy trip after winning in Doha only to endure a miserable week so far, losing two matches in two days.
But he remained bullish over his Open chances at Australian Open 2012.
"I have big expectations, but not because I won in Doha. I've expected to play well since I was a kid starting in the game, It's my dream to win a grand slam," said Tsonga. "I'm trying to improve my game to do that.
"I hope to make a push against the top four, if I can do that it would be something really big for me."
Source AP
Thursday, January 12, 2012
