MY ACCOUNT
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga savoured a “fantastic” win as the veteran Frenchman showed in Montpellier there might still be life left in his career.
Ranked 259th by the ATP after two injury-blighted years, the former world number five scored his first main-tour singles victory since last March in Marseille as he beat Poland’s Kacper Zuk at the Open Sud de France on Tuesday.
Tsonga battled for a 6-4 6-4 victory in the first round, and the 36-year-old, who has battled back and leg problems, said: “It’s just amazing for me to be here on the court playing.
“For me, the goal is to have fun again, to find a level where I can beat great players again.”
The former Australian Open runner-up competed last week at a Challenger Tour event, while the first grand slam of the year was carrying on without him in Melbourne.
He abandoned his 2021 campaign after a first-round loss at Wimbledon, where he was beaten in five sets by Sweden’s Mikael Ymer.
Quoted on the ATP website after his return to winning ways, Tsonga said: “I had a few difficult months and to win like this for one of my first matches of the year, it’s just fantastic for me.
“You cannot do it without the people around you. I have the chance to have very good people around me, and it gave me the opportunity to live some moments like this.”
Qualifier Gilles Simon saw off wildcard Lucas Pouille 7-6 (7-4) 5-7 6-4 in a battle of two French compatriots of Tsonga who are both fellow former top-10 tour stars.
Other winners on Tuesday in Montpellier included Serbian Filip Krajinovic, who will face Tsonga on Wednesday, plus Ymer and France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
At the Tata Open Maharashtra, staged in the Indian city of Pune, seeds Emil Ruusuvuori and Stefano Travaglia both came through their opening tests. Ruusuvuori beat Egor Gerasimov 6-0 7-6 (13-11), while Travaglia was pushed hard by India’s Ramkumar Ramanathan, eventually scraping through 7-6 (9-7) 4-6 6-3.
