12 Feb 2011

Tsonga to face Ljubicic in indoor semi-finals

6:53 am on 12 February 2011

Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will face Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic for a place in the World Indoor tennis final in Rotterdam after they had contrasting paths through the quarter-finals this on Saturday morning.

Tsonga was handed a walkover after fourth seed Tomas Berdych pulled out suffering with flu but Ljubicic had to sweat for two hours and 24 minutes for a 6-4 6-7 7-6 victory over unseeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.

Holder and top seed Robin Soderling plays Russian Mikhail Youzhny and Marin Cilic takes on Victor Troicki in the remaining quarter-finals later in Saturday.

Ljubicic, runner-up in the Dutch port city in 2005 and 2007, squandered a chance to dismiss Baghdatis in straight sets when he netted on match point in the second set tiebreak but recovered to hold off the Cypriot in the decider.

Baghdatis had knocked out second seed Andy Murray in the opening round.