Rogers Cup: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beats Roger Federer to win his second ATP Masters 1000 title
Dream week for Tsonga
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga couldn't have asked for a better week in Toronto as he beat second seed Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6(3) in the final. It is Tsonga's second victory in an ATP Masters 1000 event after winning the 2008 BNP Paribas Open in Paris. The Frenchman has returned to the top 10 with this win.
It was an incredible last few days in Toronto for Tsonga as he accounted for four top ten players. He took out No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic in straight sets and followed it up with a hard fought three sets victory over Andy Murray in the quarterfinals.
The Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov was shown the door in a convincing fashion as Tsonga did not break any sweat to win 6-4, 6-3. Despite this loss, Federer still has a 11-5 head-to-head win record over Tsonga.
He was ecstatic after the win. "I feel good," said a jubilant Tsonga. "I think for the moment I don't realize really what I achieved this week, but it's a big achievement for me. "It's completely different than before when I won in Paris. In Paris it was the first one, behind my family, all my friends, everybody. Here I just did it with my level, with my game. I played well all week. I beat many good guys. It's a big achievement because I worked really hard to come back from my knee injury last year."
Federer happy with his form on hard courts
Federer was on the verge of winning a record 300th match at the ATP Masters 1000 level. He would now have to wait for next week's Cincinnati Open to achieve that feat. "Today was just difficult in terms of rhythm from the baseline, so it was like a new tournament for me," said Federer. "No excuses. I think he played really solid and well when he had to and I think he served well overall, which was key for him. "I'm overall pretty happy that I made the finals in my first tournament back on hard courts...I know what I need to work on the next few days and next few weeks."
The Swiss maestro faces either Radek Stepanek or Vasek Pospisil in his first round at Cincinnati. Tsonga opens his campaign against Mikhail Youzhny.
You can watch all the best shots of the 2014 Toronto Masters here: