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Tsonga And Gasquet Enter Metz Quarterfinals
By Lauren Lynch Photo Credit: Natasha Peterson/ Corleve
(September 22, 2011) On Thursday at the Moselle Open, top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga shot out ten aces to enter his fourth quarterfinal at an ATP World Tour 250 tournament this year. He defeated qualifier and fellow France-native Mathieu Rodrigues 6-3, 6-4 in 76 minutes on the indoor-hard courts.
"I am very happy to be here and a first match at a tournament is never easy but I feel things went really well today," Tsonga told the ATP.
It was Rodrigues’ first tour-level tournament and managed to break the World No. 10 once and save nine break points of 12 attempts. Tsonga is 38-18 wins to losses in 2011 and will attempt to pass the quarterfinals in Metz for the first time against Nicolas Mahut.
Sixth-seeded Mahut had a two-hour-and-a-half battle against countryman Arnaud Clement with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 win. Both were serving strong with the victor shooting out 15 and the loser at 11.
This is Mahut’s first tour quarterfinal of the year. The 29-year-old has only played Tsonga once but lost to him on clay in 2008.
The last French player to win was Richard Gasquet, the 2004 finalist, defeated Olivier Rochus of Belgium with ease at 6-2, 6-1.
The second seed hit 10 aces to his opponent’s zero and saved the one attempt against his serve while converting four of six break chances. He won 90 percent of his first serve.
He faces eighth seed Gilles Muller next. Gasquet has a 4-0 record against the Luxemberg native.
Igor Sijsling continues on his impressive run and ended seventh-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber’s at 6-4, 7-5 to enter his first ATP Tour quarterfinal. He will have to face the fourth seed and 2005 champion Ivan Ljubicic.
Other wins of the day included sixth seed Xavier Malisse beat Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 6-2 for his second quarterfinal at the tournament.
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