By Alberto Amalfi | Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Playing just his third clay-court match of the year, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga pumped eight aces rallying past Carlos Berlocq, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3, in Lyon.
Photo credit: Pascal Guyot/AFP
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga put his pained right shoulder to the test—and dispensed a dose of serving trauma to Carlos Berlocq.
Tsonga smacked eight aces rallying for a 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-3 win over Berlocq in his Lyon opener.
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The second-seeded Tsonga, who withdrew from Rome due to a right shoulder injury, was playing just his third clay-court match of the season.
Top-seeded Milos Raonic maintained his perfect record against Denis Istomin powering to a 6-4, 6-3 victory in 81 minutes.
Raonic, who launched the spring season reaching his first career clay-court final in Istanbul, is 4-0 lifetime against Istomin, sweeping all eight sets they’ve played.
Playing for the fourth straight week, Raonic will face Gastao Elias for a semifinal spot.
The 125th-ranked Portuguese qualifier fought off seven of nine break points surprising 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, 7-6 (0), 6-4.
Gilles Simon rallied past British qualifier Kyle Edmund, 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, in two hours, 42 minutes.
The fifth-seeded Frenchman set up a quarterfinal clash with either third-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych or Hyeon Chung.
Since snapping a 17-month title drought winning successive titles in Rotterdam and Marseilla, Tsonga has played just four matches.
The 32-year-old Frenchman welcomed his first child, son Shugar, on March 18th, and has missed much of the clay-court season nursing injury.
Tsonga, who reached Roland Garros semifinals in two of the last four years, will play hard-hitting Russian Karen Khachanov next. Khachanov saved four of five break points in a 6-2, 7-6 (3) decision over Australian Jordan Thompson.