TSONGA vs NIEMINEN

Mary Pierce’s countryman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will play against Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in third round of the Sony Open.

Tsonga made an entry into the third round with a straight set victory over the Serbian player Victor Troicki, while, Nieminen got better of the Slovakian player Martin Klizan to make his way into the third round.

Tsonga who has been given 6^th seed has an average record in this tournament. He has been a quarterfinalist in the Sony Open three times in the past i.e. in 2009, 2010 and 2012. This is not a satisfying record for a player of the calibre of Tsonga. He would like to put up his best performance in the Sony Open this year.

Tsonga’s performance in this season has been decent. In the Australian Open, he managed to reach the final 8 and then, he won Open 13 which was played at Marseille. The Frenchman was in fine nick in the BNP Paribas Open as well and won his first four matches quite convincingly. But, in the quarter final round, he was defeated by the world no. 1 Novak Djokovic in the straight sets.

On the other hand, Nieminen who is currently at the 49^th position in the world rankings has performed poorly in this season.  Out of the 19 matches that he has played in the ongoing season, he has won 12 and lost 7.

Nieminen is an experienced player. He has been a professional tennis player since the last 13 years, but, he has never managed to make it to top 10. His highest career ranking is 13 which he had achieved in 2006. He has been an inconsistent performer over the years and he has won only a couple of titles in his career so far.

Tsonga and Nieminen have played against each other five times in the past and Tsonga has won three of those matches.