Former champ Tsonga, Karlovic advance to Vienna semifinals
VIENNA (AP) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Friday to set up a semifinal against Croatia's Ivo Karlovic at the Erste Bank Open.
It will be the third semifinal appearance of the season for the 15th-ranked Frenchman, who lost the previous two, in Auckland and Monte Carlo.
Sixth-seeded Tsonga, who won the event in 2011, failed to score a point while serving at 5-1 but broke again to close out the first set, and converted his third match point in the second-set tiebreaker.
Earlier, the 21st-ranked Karlovic used one of his 29 aces to save a match point before beating Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Karlovic, who won titles in Newport and Los Cabos, advanced to his sixth semifinal of the season.
