Seed no.2 Jo-Wilfred Tsonga wins the most interesting first round of the Rakuten japan Open Tennis Champioship.
Tsonga and Monfils were both quite unlucky to play each other in the opener. Jo had a wonderful start of the match to immediately break Gael and get a quick 4-1 lead. Tsonga then had just to keep his serve to win the first set 6-3.
In the second set we had no breaks and the two Frenchmen went straight to the tiebreak. Gael had to fight a 1-5 deficit to even the score at 5 all. Then Tsonga won the tiebreak at the 4th match point. Match Stats.
Tsonga: I started well
Jo acknowledges that to beat his friend he had to take advantage of a very good start “I started well and played offensively. I know this is the only way for me to beat Gael.”
Second Round
Jo will play in the second round against either Ivan Dodig (head to head 1-0 for the Frenchman) or Sugita.
