Jo-Wilfried Tsonga upsets Rafael Nadal to reach Shanghai Masters final

SHANGHAI (AP) — Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached only his second final of the year after upsetting Rafael Nadal 6-4, 0-6, 7-5 at the Shanghai Masters on Saturday.

Nadal had been attempting to reach back-to-back finals following his run last week at the China Open in Beijing, where he eventually lost to Novak Djokovic.

The Spanish star had displayed some of his best tennis of the season this week — beating top-10 players Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka — but he played tentatively at the start against Tsonga, fending off four break points in the first set before the Frenchman finally converted on his fifth.

After Nadal easily won the second, Tsonga broke Nadal again to go up 6-5 in the third and then got to match point with a diving volley that clipped the baseline. He closed it out when Nadal dumped a backhand into the net.

"I was there until the end. Was not the day to win," Nadal said. "I believe there is no doubt that the confidence is higher now than a couple of months ago."

Tsonga, seeded 16th, had not reached a final this season until capturing the Open de Moselle title last month in his native France.

It's been an up-and-down year for the Frenchman after he missed 11 weeks at the start of the season with an arm injury he aggravated in last year's David Cup final. He reached the semifinals of the French Open, but fell before the quarterfinals in nine other events and briefly dropped out of the top 20 in August.

"To be honest, before (I) come here, I didn't know if I will be able to play that good," Tsonga said. "But finally I play really good, so it's good for me. I hope it's going to continue."

Top-seeded Djokovic plays Andy Murray later Saturday in the other semifinal.