Thirteenth seed Steve Johnson outlasted third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the third round 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (4). The quarterfinals are now set in Winston-Salem with just four seeds still alive. Johnson is the lowest seed left with second seeded Kevin Anderson, sixth seeded Thomaz Bellucci and eighth seeded Borna Coric all set for quarterfinal action on Thursday.

One Break Takes The Opening Set

Johnson opened on serve and survived a shaky first game that saw him give Tsonga three chances to break. The two would exchange holds to 2-1 in favor of Johnson when the Frenchman lost control on serve. Tsonga gave Johnson three looks at break chances in the fourth game with Johnson converting on the second one for a 3-1 lead. Johnson would hold strong his next two service games, losing just one point as he took a 5-3 lead with a chance to serve out the opening set.

Tsonga would test the American as he fought off two set points and then worked two break chances to get back to even in the set. Johnson holded firm though and finished the first set on his third set point.

Johnson saved five of five break points in the set. His second serve made a difference as he won 50 percent of his second serve points compared to just 33 percent for Tsonga.

Tsonga Converts In The Second

There was very little to separate the two in the second set as there were nine holds of serve to start the set, leaving the Frenchman in the lead 5-4.

Neither man dropped more than two points on serve during the first nine games. In the 10th game, Tsonga converted on the only break chance in the set for a 6-4 set win. Both were exceptional on serve as Tsonga won 76 percent of his service points without allowing a break point. Johnson was just slightly worse, winning just 69 perent of his service points.

Tsonga was nearly untouchable on his first serves in the set, winning 14 of 16 points.

Tie Break Decides The Match

The final set saw both players able to hold six times to a penultimate tie break.

Tsonga nearly blew it right away as he allowed Johnson a break chance in the first game of the set. Tsonga saved and held. Johnson would give Tsonga a couple of break chances, one each in the fourth and eleventh games.

The third seed could not convert much like the entire match as Johnson held on to force the tie break. Service holds were exchanged for the first three points of the breaker before Johnson began to roll as he took five straight points to get his first match point at 6-1.

Tsonga would hold twice and then take a point off Johnson to whittle the tie break lead down to 6-4. On the fourth match point, Johnson hit a solid serve and ended the match.

“It’s always difficult to keep your sense of urgency after getting a couple of mini-breaks, but I was able to do that, make a good first serve at 6/4 and call it a night," said the American.

Quarterfinal Match-Up

Next up for the 13th-seeded American will be unseeded Yen-Hsun Lu. For Lu, it is his third straight quarterfinal showing at Winston-Salem. He is 3-0 against Johnson at the ATP level. Their quarterfinal is the second scheduled match on Stadium Court Thursday to begin no sooner than 5:00 pm local time.