Jo-Wilfried Tsonga joins Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Milos Raonic as Queen's Club casualties
Sixth-ranked Grigor Dimitrov fights back to reach quarter-finals
Thursday 22 June 2017 14:15, UK
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga became the latest star to crash out of Queen's Club as the fifth seed was beaten by Luxembourg's Gilles Muller on Wednesday.
After world No 1 Andy Murray, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka and former Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic all endured shock first-round defeats on Tuesday, it was Tsonga's turn to suffer a surprise second-round exit.
Fifth seeded Tsonga is traditionally a powerful force on grass and finished as Queen's runner-up in 2011, while twice appearing in the Wimbledon semi-finals.
But the 32-year-old, who has won titles in Lyon, Marseille and Rotterdam in 2017, was out of sorts from start to finish against the big-serving Muller as he limped out in just 69 minutes.
"He just played good tennis," admitted Tsonga, who suffered an embarrassing first-round exit against Renzo Olivo at the French Open. "You know, sometimes you cannot do anything, because the guy in front of you is playing well and he's doing the right things to make you play, you know, in a bad way. And that's it.
"I played two matches here. That's life. I'll try to play better in Wimbledon. I have to put a little bit more energy in my game."
Muller is in the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon warm-up event for a third successive year and will play former Queen's champion Sam Querrey or Australia's Jordan Thompson for a place in the last four.
Grigor Dimitrov avoided becoming another high-profile departure when he bounced back from committing three double-faults in the opening game and losing the first set to beat Julien Benneteau 4-6 6-3 6-4.
Marin Cilic, who plays Stefan Kozlov on Thursday, is the only higher seeded player left in the tournament, but Dimitrov says he isn't looking too far ahead.
"I don't look at those things, not when you look at all the players who are lower ranked but can beat anyone, as we saw yesterday," said Dimitrov, the 2014 champion at Queen's. "You just need to stay in your own bubble."
Donald Young reached the Queen's quarter-finals for the first time as the American world No 55 defeated Serbia's Viktor Troicki 6-3 6-4.
Young, who arrived at Queen's on a five-match losing streak, faces former US Open champion Cilic or American qualifier Kozlov with a semi-final berth at stake.
Tomas Berdych, seeded seventh, secured his quarter-final spot with a hard-fought victory over Canada's impressive youngster Denis Shapovalov.
Berdych, the Czech world No 14, needed two hours and fifteen minutes to prevail 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 against the 18-year-old world No 193.
The two-time Davis Cup winner awaits either Spain's Feliciano Lopez or France's Jeremy Chardy who meet in the second round on Thursday.
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