Tomas Berdych is a rhythm player.  If his timing is on, he can be one of the purest hitters in the game.  But because he hits a pretty flat ball and needs to hit aggressive due to his lack of real footspeed,  Tsonga, by contrast, has good footspeed, a good first serve, and a huge forehand.  Tsonga ought to do well against a player like Berdych, but they do have similar strengths.

The two met about a month ago in the Beijing semifinals.  They played three sets there as well, but Berdych won that match.

This match was going to be about whether Berdych could stay in rhythm and hit the shots he needed to, or whether he wouldn’t.  As one of the commentators noted, Berdych was not in the group with big servers.  He played Ferrer, Tipsarevic, and Djokovic all who have good, but not outstanding serves.  Tsonga, by contrast, can boom it as big as Berdych.,

In the end, Berdych struggled with his second serves and making way too many unforced errors, typically while he was trying to hit aggressive shots.  Tsonga did a much better job of holding his own serve.  One break decided the first set.  In the second set, Tsonga broke early, but Berdych immediately broke back when Tsonga missed a bunch of first serves which allowed Berdych to attack the return.

Tsonga then got another break at the 5-all match.  When Berdych made yet another error, it was Tsonga serving well to win the match.

Final score: 6-3, 7-5.

Tsonga will now play Federer for the third time in two weeks.  He played him a week ago in the opening round robin match, then the week before in the finals of Paris.  Tsonga was able to push Federer to three sets in the round-robin.  Federer, meanwhile, played solid, but not outstanding against Ferrer for a comfortable win.

Federer will have to turn up the quality of play against Tsonga rather than the workmanlike job he’s had so far from his last two matches.  Tsonga is playing solid tennis, so he could keep it interesting.  Still, Federer is favored to win.