体坛英语新闻：Nadal to play Djokovic in Paris Masters semi-final

PARIS, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- Second seed Rafael Nadal beat title-holder Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-5, 7-5 on Friday, setting up a Paris Masters semi-final clash with third seed Novak Djokovic.

    Djokovic had earlier defeated Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 in the first of the day's quarterfinals to reach the last four in Paris for the first time.

    Frenchman Tsonga was seeking to become the first man to successfully defend the prestigious Bercy title that traditionally brings down the curtain on the ATP regular season.

    And he got off to a storming start in front of a packed Bercy Stadium by holding his serve to love and then procuring two break points on Nadal's following serve.

    But he was unable to convert any of those as the gritty Nadal, who saved five match points against Nicolas Almagro in the third round on Wednesday and narrowly escaped against Tommy Robredo on Thursday, hung on to level.

    Tsonga let slip three more break points in the sixth game and was made to pay the price five games later when a resurgent Nadal grabbed the first break of the match with a stinging forehand drive that the net-bound Tsonga volleyed long.

    The Spaniard duly pocketed the set on his own serve.

    The second set followed a near identical pattern to the first with Tsonga holding serve comfortably earlier on and Nadal having a harder time of it.

    But once again in the 11th game, Tsonga's concentration wavered resulting in unforced errors that handed Nadal the break of serve he needed.

    The Spaniard had no trouble putting the match away as Tsonga's game fell apart and the title he won superbly last year was taken from him.

    Djokovic's win over Soderling wrecked the Swede's hopes of a first-ever appearance in the ATP Tour Finals.

    Soderling, who made the final of the French Open the last time he played in Paris in June, went into the match knowing that he needed to at least reach the final here to clinch the remaining spot in the season-ending tournament.

    He did just fine in the second set which he won 6-1 after dropping the first, but in a tense decider he was the first to crack on serve in the eighth game when two unforced errors on the backhand side followed by a double fault gave Djokovic three breakpoints.

    Soderling saved the first of these, but then netted a weak backhand to hand the break to the third seed who made no mistake in serving out for the match.

    The remaining two quarterfinals on Friday see France's Gael Monfils take on Marin Cilic of Croatia followed by U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina against Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

    The losses for Tsonga and Soderling meant that Spain's Fernando Verdasco was assured of the eighth and final spot in the November 22-29 ATP Tour Finals in London.

    The other players qualified for that are Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko.