The quarter finals of the 2015 French Open get underway as fifth seed Kei Nishikori takes on Frenchman and 14th seed Jo–Wilfried Tsonga who will get all the support from a home crowd on the Phillipe Chartier Court.
Join The Roar for live scores of this game from around 11:30pm (AEST) after the conclusion of the Ivanovic versus Svitolina game.
Interestingly, Nishikori has only played in four French Opens and has struggled every time, only making it past the second round on a single occasion and never to the quarter finals.
This however is not an indication of his form, which has been splendid only losing two games in the clay court season to Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic. In saying that, many of wins have been against lower ranked players, with his biggest win coming in the quarter finals at Madrid against David Ferer.
So far at the 2015 French Open, while only playing lower ranked players he has had three straight sets victories and a walkover. This means he will be one of the freshest players out of those left having only played nine sets of tennis. His biggest win so far in the tournament was against 40th ranked Thomaz Bellucci.
Meanwhile, Tsonga has the experience of already playing finals at the French Open making the quarter final in 2012 and the semi-final in 2013.
Tsonga has been battling against his form coming into the French Open however losing games that he should be winning against the likes of David Goffin and Marcel Granollers on the clay court. He also didn’t participate in the Australian Open earlier in the year as he battled with injury.
However, his form looks to have turned a corner at the French Open. His first three round victories were all to be expected against much lesser opposition. In saying that not dropping a set was a great early tournament achievement.
The fourth round was where it was supposed to end as he took on fourth seed Thomas Berdych however he convincingly overcame him, beating him in four sets losing the third in a tie breaker.
The pair have previously matched up five times, with Nishikori getting the better of Tsonga on four occasions. The pair have never matched up on clay and only once in a grand slam which came in the fourth round of the 2012 Australian Open with Nishikori winning in five sets.
Tsonga’s only win over Nishikori came in came in 2013 during the Shanghai masters with Tsonga winning in straight sets.
Last time the pair matched was in the Paris Masters of 2014 with Nishikori winning in three sets, dropping the middle set of the match. The betting odds also point srongly towards a Nishikori victory.
PREDICTION: It should be a fantastic match and Tsonga will push hard for the win in his home grand slam to advance to the semi-finals. Tsonga is also one of those players where you just never know what sort of game he will put on. If he is at his best he could well cause a boil over, however the rested Nishikori should be too strong for him.
Nishikori in five sets.
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