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Rotterdam - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rained down ten aces,
finishing off Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-4 in 72 minutes on Saturday to power into a
second Rotterdam World Tennis final on Saturday.
The French sixth seed will compete for his first title at
the Ahoy stadium after finishing runner-up six years ago.
He faces the winner from Belgian third seed Dvid Goffin and
surprise semi-finalist Pierre-Hughes Herbert, a French qualifier and member of
the top ATP doubles side.
Tsonga was unstoppable against Berdych, the 2014 champion
and 2015 finalist playing his third semi-final at the Dutch event.
Tsonga came good in his second semi-final of the season as
he bids for a first trophy since winning at home in Metz, in 2015.
Berdych came to the court with an 8-3 lead in the series,
including wins in their last two meetings, one a Doha quarter-final last month.
Tsonga finished with two breaks of the 13th-ranked Czech
while never facing a break point in what quickly became one-way traffic.
"My only goal is to win the next match, this would be
important for me," Tsonga said.
"I'm not too worried about my (14th) ranking unless I
were able to get to eighth, that is the position where you are protected in the
draw from other seeds.
"Berdych played a tough match, he's a power player,
hitting the ball hard like me. My strategy is always the same - the best strategy
is to just play well."
Goffin, who earned revenge in the quarter-finals as he beat Grigor Dimitrov five days after the Bulgarian won the Sofia event at the Belgian's expense, will be facing Herbert for the first time.
