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  • Indian Wells preview: Rafael Nadal vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

    3/19/08 9:48 AM | Cheryl Murray
    - Will Rafael Nadal get revenge for the drubbing he took in the semifinals of the Australian Open, or does Jo-Wilfried Tsonga have his number? All eyes will be on this marquis round of 16 match up, as the two youngsters do battle for the second time in under a month.

    The Frenchman Tsonga was on fire in Melbourne, taking out seed after seed in a fairy tale run to the finals. His form and results have been questionable since, but he will come into this match with the confidence of knowing he has beaten Nadal before.

    The court speed at the Pacific Life Open is not optimum for Tsonga's big game. It is a slower, gritty surface that actually plays similarly to a clay court. Tsonga's big serves and pounding ground strokes will not be quite as effective here. Conversely, these conditions are just what Rafael Nadal likes best. One of the reasons Nadal tends not to do well on hard courts is because he doesn't have time to set up his shots - Indian Wells gives him that.

    Rafael Nadal has not won a hard court title since the Pacific Life Open in 2007. Besides that tournament, the rest of his titles for the year were on his beloved clay, a surface on which he has been nearly unbeatable. He has had good results on hard courts in 2008, reaching a final in Chennai and then the semifinals in Melbourne, but he also suffered a strange loss to Andreas Seppi in Rotterdam and bowed out of Dubai to eventual champion Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals. He is 14-4 for the year thus far. He has had easy wins over Santiago Giraldo and Donald Young on his way to the round of 16.

    Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has not had good results since the Australian Open. He played just Marseille between the Australian Open and Indian Wells; he was knocked out in the first round by the Croatian powerhouse, Mario Ancic 5-7, 6-7(3). His road to the round of 16 included an easy win over Dudi Sela and a more difficult one over his countryman, Paul-Henri Mathieu. Tsonga's ranking has jumped 21 spots from January until now on the strength of his first grand slam final.

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