Tsonga has a head start in 2012 by winning in Doha and confirms that he now possess a much more solid tennis.
The final was not easy at all. Gael had a wonderful tournament and a huge self beleif after winning vs. Nadal in the semis.
He started pretty well in the final by immediately breaking Tsonga and get a 3-1 lead.Then Tsonga found his tennis and managed to fight back to win the opener 7-5. He then had to carry the momentun to win the second set 6-3.
‘At the beginning, it was bit difficult. He broke me very early and it was tough,’ Tsonga said. ‘But in my head, everything was right, OK, I’m one break down. I will continue to play my game and make him run a lot. I think it was good solution. After that, he was bit tired of that and I was better than him.’
Tsonga won his 8th career title and he reached his 3rd straight final (the previous 2 were in Paris and London, both lost with Federer).
‘Today, I was maybe less powerful than I was during this week, because I think also Jo played different,’ Monfils said. ‘He was playing a bit soft and then changed the rhythm, like a bit hard and mixed it up with some slice. I had some opportunities in the first set, and I was maybe a bit less aggressive tonight to finish the first set.’
