Tsonga overpowers Djokovic to reach final

Local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overpowered world number three Novak Djokovic 6-4, 7-6 to book his place in the Marseille Open final on Saturday.

World number 12 Tsonga, who has now won his last four matches against Djokovic since losing to the Serb in the Australian Open final in 2008, will face either Gilles Simon or Michael Llodra in an all-French final on Sunday.

Tsonga, seeded fourth, converted his only break point in the seventh game and opened up a 5-3 lead, only for top seeded Djokovic to go 0-40 up on the Frenchman's serve in the 10th game.

Tsonga, however, fired five punishing serves in a row to snatch the opening set in 34 minutes.

Djokovic staved off two break points in the seventh game as the second set went with serve.

Tsonga moved up another gear in the resulting tiebreak, which he won 7-1 with a series of devastating forehands to wrap up victory after 85 minutes.

"I told myself I had to go for it," Tsonga said in a courtside interview.