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Wawrinka down Tsonga into first French Open final

Xinhua, June 6, 2015 Adjust font size:

Stan Wawrinka reached his first French Open final on Friday, setting up a final matchup against winner between Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Wawrinka shattered French hopes of a first men's singles champion in 32 years when he outlasted Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3) 6-4.

The 2014 Australian Open winner reached the final in Paris for the first time having lost just two sets along the way.

For Tsonga, the dream of emulating Yannick Noah, the last Frenchman to win at Roland Garros in 1983, was over for another year. The last Frenchman to reach the final was Henri Leconte in 1988.

"It was a huge battle, very difficult physically, a lot of intensity on both sides and it could have gone either way," Wawrinka said.

"He had chances to break me in the third set, but he had a great tournament and deserves just as much as me to be in the final."

The semifinalists had met twice before at Roland Garros. Wawrinka won their most recent encounter in Davis Cup final in November.

Tsonga defeated fourth seed Tomas Berdych and fifth seed Kei Nishikori to reach the semis for the second time. Endi