Wilfried Tsonga marched into the Johannesburg Open semifinals with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Belgian Kristof Vliegen on Friday. The Frenchman next plays unseeded Portuguese Frederico Gil, who put out Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-6, 6-3. There was better luck for Lopez's fellow countryman David Ferrer as the second seed defeated Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 6-2 to set up a meeting with Jeremy Chardy, a 7-6, 6-3 winner over fellow Frenchman Sebastien De Chaunac. Tsonga was particularly pleased with the mobility he displayed against Vliegen. “I'm moving better than I have been in the last couple of weeks which is a good advantage at altitude,” the top seed told reporters. “It's difficult to control the ball so I just concentrate on putting it in the court and then running.” Ferrer said he concentrated on playing error-free tennis in his win over former Australian Open runner-up Baghdatis. “The key at altitude is to keep mistakes to a minimum,” he said. “I was consistent, I did not make too many mistakes.” Australia-New Zealand final In Perth, Australia and New Zealand advanced to the final of the Fed Cup Asia/Oceania Group 1 playoff Friday, Australia with its third straight 3-0 win and New Zealand needing a three-set doubles victory. Casey Dellacqua beat Hwang I-hsuan of Taiwan 6-1, 6-1 before Sam Stosur gave Australia an unbeatable 2-0 lead with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Chan Chin-wei. Stosur and Rennae Stubbs extended Australia's unbeaten run at the tournament with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) win over Chan and Chuang Chia-jung in doubles. Australia finished on top of Group B and progressed to Saturday's final against Group A winner New Zealand, which beat Indonesia 2-1. The winner of the Asia/Oceania zonal final will advance to the World Group II playoff in April. New Zealand's doubles pairing of Marina Erakovic and Kairangi Vano secured their third successive win of the tournament by beating Ayu Fani Damayanti and Sandy Gumulya 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 of Indonesia. Erakovic had earlier won her match 6-2, 6-4 over Gumulya and Di Hollands lost to Damayanti 6-4, 7-6 (4). In other matches Friday which had no bearing on the finals, Uzbekistan beat India and Thailand defeated South Korea, both by 3-0 scores. India and Taiwan will play a relegation match Saturday. The loser will drop to regional Group II in 2010.
