Davis Cup: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga helps france enter semi-finals

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame an early scare to win the opening reverse singles on Sunday to give France a 3-1 victory over the Czech Republic in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

Amid increased security following the deadly attack in the French city of Nice, Tsonga rallied to beat Jiri Vesely 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-5 and earn a spot in the Davis Cup semifinals for France for the second time in three years.

France face the United States or Croatia in the semifinals in September. Ahead of the reverse singles, the Americans lead 2-1.

The 10th-ranked Frenchman hit a big passing forehand to gain two break points in the 11th game of the fourth set and closed out the best-of-five series on his first match point on the indoor hard court in the eastern Czech city of Trinec.

The final singles was not played. Tsonga double faulted to give Vesely a break point in the fifth game of the opening set and the 50th-ranked Czech converted it. Tsonga wasted his two break points in the eighth game and hit the net on Vesely’s second set point. Tsonga earned a set point at 5-4 in the second set but wasted it before prevailing in tiebreak.