ATP Moselle Open: Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga into quarter-finals in Metz
Wednesday 17 September 2014 22:26, UK
Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got his bid for a third Moselle Open title off to a solid start with a straight sets win over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.
However, in a game predictably dominated by two big serves, Tsonga had to battle hard before closing out a 7-6 (9/7) 6-4 victory.
The Frenchman, who served 10 aces to his rival’s 15, staved off all five break points he faced and, having come through a tense tie-break in the opener, secured a solitary break in the second set to seal his passage.
In the quarter-finals Tsonga will face the winner of David Goffin’s clash with Tobias Kamke, the former having seen off qualifier Florent Serra 6-2 6-2 on Wednesday.
There were two other French winners on the day with Paul-Henri Mathieu ousting fourth seed Lukas Rosol 6-3 6-4 and fifth seed Jeremy Chardy overcoming compatriot Nicolas Mahut 7-6 (7/5) 7-5.
Sixth-seeded Joao Sousa of Portugal proved a convincing winner against Croatia’s Ivan Dodig, prevailing 6-2 6-2.
Jarkko Nieminen also advanced in straight sets as he beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-1 6-4, while Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff had to come from a set down to beat Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic 6-7(6/8) 6-3 6-3.
