STOCKHOLM – Top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-3, 6-4 on Friday in the Stockholm Open to set up a semifinal match against 2009 champion Marcos Baghdatis. The seventh-ranked Frenchman, playing in the Swedish capital for the first time, put on an impressive display of serve and volley tennis to advance.
Leading 5-3 in the second set, Tsonga squandered four match points on Stakhovsky's serve. In the next game, Tsonga finished with a forehand winner on the fifth match point.
Cypriot Baghdatis edged Lithuanian Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Spain's Nicolas Almagro will play second-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic in the other semifinal. Almagro beat former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt 6-1, 6-4, and Berdych edged Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-6 (2) in the late match.
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