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Snakes n’ Ladders: Jo at career-high five


 

Originally published on: 27/02/12 09:56

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga may have lost to Juan Martin del Potro for the fourth time in their five meetings in the Marseille semi-finals this weekend, but the Frenchman woke up a happy man on Monday morning after rising to a career-high No.5 in the ATP rankings.

The Frenchman displaces David Ferrer, who won his 13th career title in Buenos Aires on Sunday but still drops to No.6 having failed to pick up any extra points after also winning a clay title in Acapulco in the corresponding week last year.

As a result, Tsonga nestles in next to the top four for the first time, but remains a good 2,740 points behind Britian’s Andy Murray.

John Isner continued his steady rise towards the top 10, climbing two places to a career-high No.11 after reaching the quarter-finals in Memphis. The 6’9” American fell to former world No.8 Jurgen Melzer, who completed a dream week at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships by downing 2011 finalist Milos Raonic 7-5 7-6(4) for his fourth career title – his first at ATP 500 level.

Ranked No.38 at the start of the week, the 30-year-old Austrian jumped 19 places to return to the top 20 for the first time since October – and the belief, says Melzer, came to him after his win over Isner in the last eight.

“After the match against John, I felt this could be my tournament because I’ve been really playing well and things have been going together,” he said. “I’ve been going for lines when it was important and especially the big points I’ve been playing well the whole tournament. This is confidence, this is what you need.”

Despite losing the Memphis final for the second year running having also lost to Andy Roddick in 2011, Raonic could take solace from another career-high rankings jump. The Ontario resident climbed 11 places to No.24.

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Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.