PARIS (AP) ― Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the third round of the Paris Masters with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2) win over Julien Benneteau on Tuesday.
The 2008 champion needed nearly 2 1/2 hours to get past Benneteau and was forced into a final-set tiebreaker after failing to serve out the match.
Benneteau only converted three of his 11 break points against the hard-serving Tsonga, who hit a total of 15 aces ― five in each set.
Fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic also reached the third round after beating Andreas Seppi 7-6 (8), 6-2.
After a closely fought first set, Berdych took firm control of the match by jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the second.
Three other Frenchmen won in the first round, all against Spaniards. Jeremy Chardy cruised past Guillermo Garcia Lopez 6-0, 6-3, Paul-Henri Mathieu beat Roberto Bautista-Agut 6-4, 7-5, and Michael Llodra defeated Daniel Gimeno-Traver 7-5, 6-3.
However, Benoit Paire lost 7-6 (2), 6-2 to 15th-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan in the second round.
Earlier, qualifier Jerzy Janowicz of Poland pulled off another upset when he beat 13th-seeded Marin Cilic 7-6 (6), 6-2 to set up a potential third-round match against U.S. Open champion Andy Murray.
Wozniacki, Vinci win SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) ― Caroline Wozniacki and Roberta Vinci had easy straight-set victories Tuesday in their first round-robin matches at the season-ending Tournament of Champions.
The top-seeded Wozniacki defeated Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan 6-2, 6-2 in 60 minutes while it took Vinci five minutes longer to rout Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova 6-1, 6-2.
Wozniacki converted all five of her break points and only lost her serve once, in the second set.
“I always try to finish my matches in two sets and I am happy that this time it worked,” said Wozniacki, who is coming off titles in Seoul and Moscow. “I will try to finish this season with a hat trick.”
The fourth-seeded Vinci dominated throughout, breaking five times. The two traded breaks to start the second set, but the Italian then jumped out to a 4-1 lead to take control.
Wozniacki will play Vinci on Wednesday, with the winner likely clinching a spot in Saturday’s semifinals. The first two in each group advance.
In the other group, Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova came from behind to dispatch sixth-seeded Zheng Jie of China 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4). Pironkova took a 3-0 lead in the third set before being forced into a tiebreaker.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
