TheSportsCampus

Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2012 Internazionali BNL D'Italia with contrasting wins in their third round encounters played on Thursday evening. Tsonga, suffering from poor form in the past few weeks, made amends with a resounding straight sets victory over the formidable Juan Martin del Potro while Federer notched up his seventh straight win with a three-set victory over former French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Tsonga has suffered a dreadful run of form since his quarterfinal appearance at Monte Carlo, losing in the first round in Munich followed by a third round exit last week in Madrid. Coming into this tournament under considerable pressure to live up to his No.5 ranking, the Frenchman dominated against the Argentine Del Potro, recovering from an early break to win the match 6-4, 6-1. Del Potro, who had reached the semifinals in Madrid last week, seemed off-colour throughout the match and succumbed to Tsonga for just the second time in six meetings between the two. As a reward for his victory, Tsonga earned a quarterfinal clash against World No.1 Novak Djokovic, the two having played out some memorable matches in the past.

Federer, high on confidence after a win in Madrid last week, faced a rejuvenated Ferrero in a match which definitely provided some nostalgia to tennis fans, the two having been two of the players touted to contend for tennis' major prizes after the Sampras-Agassi era. The Swiss legend though has done much better than his Spanish counterpart and secured the first set with ease, winning it 6-2 with a couple of service breaks.

The second set, however, saw the Spaniard dig deep and the set went on level pegging till the eleventh game, with Ferrero incredibly, breaking the Federer serve before closing out the set in his next service game. The Swiss star though, ultimately proved to have too much for his opponent and any hopes of a thrilling third set were put to bed as he got two breaks of serve to win the match 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 and advance to a quarterfinal meeting with local favourite Andreas Seppi.

Scores:

Jo-Wilfriend Tsonga(FRA) defeates Juan Martin Del Potro(ARG) 6-4, 6-1

Roger Federer(SUI) defeats Juan Carlos Ferrero(ESP) 6-2, 5-7, 6-1