Voo’s Semi Final Round Up – Paris

David Nalbandian advanced to the second straight Paris final after 6-1 5-7 6-4 win over former-champion Nikolay Davydenko. Nalbandian started the match very well and after winning first set easily, had a break up at the beginning of the second set. Davydenko quickly took a ribreak and the set was going to the tie-break. In the 12th game the Russian broke Nalbandian’s serve second time in the match and levelled up at one set a piece. Davydenko had 3:2 in the decider but since then Nalbandian won 3 games in a row (converted the only break point in the set) and held his serve at 5:4.

“Maybe I didn’t play perfect like yesterday or the day before,” Nalbandian said. “In the second and third set he started serving better, and the rallies were very good. He hit a lot of lines.”

In the second semifinal Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played a superb match against James Blake who needed to win this match to secure his place in Masters Cup. Tsonga hit 12 aces and never faced a break point. The Frenchman is now one win from taking the last Masters spot – his final opponent Nalbanian is in the same situation, so the final will have double importance.

“I came onto the court like a tiger, I hit at everything that moved and that made the difference,” Tsonga said. “I had to keep going forward, be more aggressive and start better than I did against (Andy) Roddick.”

Paris – Semifinals

(8)David Nalbandian (ARG) d. (6)Nikolay Davydenko 6-1 5-7 6-4

(13)Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) d. (11)James Blake (USA) 6-4 6-3