Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Ivan Ljubicic go head-to-head in the final of the Moselle Open in Metz.
Tsonga earned some sweet revenge over Ukraine's Alex Dolgopolov, the man who beat him at the Australian Open earlier this year, with a 6-4, 6-4 win in their semi-final. Tsonga has cemented his chances of qualifying for the ATP World Tour Finals with his performances so far this week and a win over Ljubicic on Sunday will see him move up into sixth place in the race.
"It would be great to earn the title here, as it would be like the cherry on the cake," Tsonga explained to the media. "Ivan is an amazing player who inspires me a lot. It's going to be very tough, I won and lost against him. His experience has always played a huge part on the matches I lost against him.”
Ljubicic won this title six years ago but at the age of 32 he still remains as dangerous as ever on the indoor circuit. He saw off fellow big server Gilles Muller 7-6(3), 7-6(5) though as the scoreline indicates there was little in it. Ljubicic slammed down 26 aces in total and said afterwards he felt it was the first time he'd served really well for a while.
On that form he will have a great chance of going all the way on Sunday afternoon but he knows he has a stiff task against Tsonga. “I will be playing Jo tomorrow, so I am still very far from becoming the first player to win twice here in Metz," he said. "It would be great but it is going to be very tough. He is a great player and he will have all the crowd with him.”
Ljubicic leads 3-2 on the head-to-head with Tsonga winning 6-4, 7-6 in Rotterdam earlier in the year and Ljubicic getting revenge 7-6, 6-4 on the clay of Monte Carlo.
Prediction: Tsonga in two.
