Novak Djokovic vs Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: ATP Montreal Masters Semifinal Preview

Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are two players that could be seeing a lot of each other in the near future as they are both hot players on tour.

They met most recently in the Wimbledon semifinals earlier this summer and they will meet once again on Saturday (Aug. 13), this time in the semifinals of the 2011 Rogers Cup.

Djokovic enters the match with a head of steam as the current world No. 1 still has not lost a match on the hard court surface in 2011. In his most recent effort Djokovic had Gael Monfils befuddled as the Frenchman could do nothing to stay on the court with the Serb, who cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory on Friday.

Tsonga had a pretty straight-forward time with his quarterfinal opponent as well as the Frenchman eliminated Nicolas Almagro in straight sets, a player best known for doing well on the clay court surface.

Entering the semifinals, Djokovic and Tsonga have met eight times in the past and the head to head series lead is actually owned by Tsonga. Djokovic won their most recent meeting but Tsonga has five hard court wins against the current world No. 1, including three wins in Masters Series tournaments.

The last time Tsonga defeated Djokovic was at the 2010 Australian Open; however, Djokovic has certainly improved since that time. 

The world No. 1 looks nearly unstoppable in Toronto now that he's hit his groove and you have to think that if Djokovic can dismiss Monfils so easily, Tsonga will not provide much greater of a test.

The other semifinal will feature Mardy Fish versus Janko Tipsarevic, and without a player like Roger Federer, Andy Murray, or Rafael Nadal remaining in the draw, you have to think that the Toronto title is Djokovic's for the taking.

Djokovic's best will beat Tsonga's best, so fans of the Frenchman need to hope that the Serbinator is off form for some reason on Saturday. 

But with a record of 51-1 this season, there's no real reason to believe that Djokovic will be "off" in the semifinal match, a contest that is scheduled to be played not before 8 pm ET on Saturday. Tsonga might do well to extend the Serbinator to a third set or even a tiebreaker as the world No. 1 appears poised for a title in Montreal this weekend.