Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is through to his first grand slam final. Remarkably, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got there by defeating Rafael Nadal in straight sets. A truly remarkable performance:

FRENCHMAN Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is through to his first grand slam final, thrashing number-two seed Rafael Nadal in straight sets at Melbourne Park tonight.
Nadal never stood a chance against the unseeded Frenchman, falling 6-2 6-3 6-2.
Tsonga, who didn’t drop serve all night, will meet the winner of tomorrow night’s match between Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Pretty impressive, don’t you think?

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s impressive run at the Australian Open continued when he
reached the final in Melbourne with a straight-set destruction of Rafael
Nadal. The unseeded Frenchman was ruthless against the Spaniard, winning
their semi-final match 6-2, 6-3, 6-2, in less than two hours.

Tsonga, ranked 38th in the world, has been the surprise package of the
tournament, knocking out Andy Murray, Richard Gasquet and Mikhail Youzhny in
earlier rounds and he made another flying start today, breaking the world No
2 in the second game with a crosscourt backhand.

A further break followed in game eight as Tsonga wrapped up the opening set in
just 32 minutes, and he continued to rule the roost in the second set,
securing another break in the eighth game before serving out to take a
two-set lead.

Nadal, the world No 2, found himself with three break points in game two of
the third set, but Tsonga saved all of them before breaking his opponent
again in the very next game.

That’s really taking him apart:

Q. I suppose it’s a bit cliche, but can you describe the emotion and
the feeling you felt when you won that match point and collapsed to
the ground?

JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: Yes, of course. I have a lot of image in my
head, and it’s coming like (indicating) like this, and it’s very —
it’s very big. And, yeah, it’s a lot of emotion.

Hmm, we might want to work a little on the interview technique there, you know?

French powerhouse Jo-Wilfried
Tsonga pulled off a stunning 6-2 6-3 6-2 defeat of world number
two Rafael Nadal on Thursday to reach the Australian Open
final.
The 38th-ranked Tsonga completely overwhelmed Spanish
baseliner Nadal from the start under lights at Melbourne Park
and completed victory in one hour 57 minutes.

38 in owrld beats number 2? I think we might see a change in those rankings pretty soon, eh?