TENNIS in DEPTH.

Rafael Nadal ended the Paris Masters run of defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the quarter-finals to help fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco book his spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

Tsonga needed to retain his title to deny Verdasco a place at the prestigious eight-man tournament in London later this month, but found Nadal far too consistent and fell to a 7-5 7-5 defeat.

The world number two struggled in his first two matches, saving five match points against Nicolas Almagro before edging out Tommy Robredo, but his form was much improved.

Tsonga dominated much of the first set with his blistering groundstrokes but could not take advantage of five break points and gradually Nadal took the sting out of his opponent before breaking in the 11th game.

The second set took on a similar pattern, although the errors, particularly tactical ones, were more frequent from the home favourite and Nadal again broke at 5-5 thanks to a poor game from Tsonga.

The 23-year-old confidently served out for victory and will face Novak Djokovic in a juicy semi-final on Saturday.

Robin Soderling’s hopes of qualifying for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals ended this afternoon with a quarter-final defeat to Novak Djokovic at the Paris Masters.

The Swede needed to at least reach the final to have a chance of claiming the last spot at the prestigious eight-man tournament at London’s O2 later this month, but lost 6-4 1-6 6-3.

Soderling frequently looked the better player against Djokovic but the third seed dug in and a decisive break in the eighth game of the decider put him on course for victory.

The Swede dominated the second set and created 14 break points on his opponent’s serve, but took only three of them.

Serb Djokovic admitted he was not at his best today and was relieved to reach the semi-finals after a fifth successive victory against Soderling.

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