Tsonga Makes Winning Start; Gasquet Races Into QFs

© Le Republicain LorrainJo-Wilfried Tsonga will play Nicolas Mahut for a place in the semi-finals.

Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made a welcome return to Metz, opening his campaign Thursday at the Moselle Open with a 6-3, 6-4 win over French qualifier Mathieu Rodrigues.

The World No. 10, who reached the quarter-finals on his only previous appearance at this ATP World Tour 250 tournament four years ago (l. to Murray), broke his compatriot three times from 12 chances to improve to a 38-18 season record. The 275th-ranked Rodridgues was making his tour-level debut this week.

"I am very happy to be here and a first match at a tournament is never easy but I feel things went really well today," said Tsonga. "Even if I haven’t played indoors in a long time, I feel good and enjoy playing on it very much right away." 

Tsonga is looking to boost his bid for one of four remaining spots in the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with just two months left in the regular season, and is currently No. 7 in the South African Airways 2011 ATP Year-To-Date Rankings.

He next plays another Frenchman, Nicolas Mahut, for a place in the semi-finals. "Tomorrow I will have a difficult client with a very aggressive game, very different to what I had today," he assessed.

In another second-round meeting between two Frenchmen, Mahut prevailed against 2003 champion Arnaud Clement 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 after two hours and 32 minutes, maintaining his perfect record (4-0) against his countryman. Mahut, a Metz semi-finalist in 2007, is through to his first ATP World Tour quarter-final since July 2009 at Newport.

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France's Richard Gasquet, the No. 2 seed and 2004 Metz finalist, wasted no time booking his place in the quarter-finals as he dismissed Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-2, 6-1 in 64 minutes. Gasquet won 90 per cent of his first serve points and broke Rochus four times from six opportunities to snap a three-match losing streak.

The 15th-ranked Gasquet, who is through to his first quarter-final since early May in Rome, will next confront No. 8 seed Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.

"I started well which put me in great conditions in the match right away," said Gasquet. "I think I served really well and did very few unforced errors. This is a great first round for me and I expect a very difficult match tomorrow against Gilles Muller."

Sixth seed Xavier Malisse reached his third ATP World Tour quarter-final of the season as he defeated Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2. The Belgian won 83 per cent of points on his first serve and converted five of eight break points for victory in 76 minutes.

World No. 47 Malisse contested his 12th ATP World Tour final at the start of the season in Chennai, finishing runner-up to Stanislas Wawrinka, and was also a semi-finalist in ‘s-Hertogenbosch (l. to Tursunov) in June. He evened up his season match record to 22-22 and goes on to face third-seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Seventh seed and 2009 finalist Philipp Kohlschreiber did not fare so well. The German was beaten by Dutch qualifier Igor Sijsling 6-4, 7-5 and dropped to a 26-23 match record on the season.

The No. 148-ranked Sijsling had not won a tour-level match all season coming into Metz and is now through to his career first ATP World Tour quarter-final after winning 90 per cent of points on first serve and breaking serve once in each set. He goes on to face fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic.