TENNIS ROLAND GARROS – Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat his compatriot Edouard Roger Vasselin in three sets with 7-6(4) 7-5 6-2 in two hours and 21 minutes in the final match on the Philippe Chatrier Court to advance to the second round. Diego Sampaolo
Interviews, Results, OOP, Draws from the 2014 Roland Garros
One the most interesting matches of the first round of the Roland Garros was the all-French clash between Jo Wilfried Tsonga and Edouard Roger Vasselin, the son of Christophe Roger Vasselin who reached the Roland Garros semifinal in 1983 after beating Jimmy Connors in the quarter finals.
Tsonga, who reached his fifth Grand Slam semifinal in the Roland Garros last year, won all the previous six matches against his compatriot (five in the ATP Tour and one in the Challenger Tour). Roger Vasselin won just two matches on clay this year but has reached his career-high moving up to the Number 35 spot in the Ranking last February after playing the Chennai final against Stan Wawrinka. He is also ranked World Number 11 in the doubles ranking with his compatriot Julienne Benneteau.
Roger Vasselin reached his career best at the Roland Garros in 2007 when he advanced to the third round. Tsonga has had a season of ups and downs this year but he reached the quarter final in Monte-Carlo and the third round in Rome.
Tsonga started well breaking serve to love in the second game for 2-0. Roger Vasselin broke straight back for 1-2. The rest of the first set went on serve without any break point chances and came down to the tie-break. Tsonga hit an ace at 1-1 before Roger Vasselin committed a costly double fault to drop the first set with 4-7.
The second set went on serve until Tsonga converted his fifth break point in the seventh game to edge 4-3 but he committed a double fault to drop serve for the immediate break-back by Roger Vasselin who drew level to 4-4. Tsonga hit a cross-court forehand shot to break serve in the 11th game for 6-5 following four unforced errors by Roger Vasselin before closing out the second set with another forehand.
At the start of the third set Roger Vasselin went down 15-40 on his serve but he managed to save the break point chance. Tsonga broke serve twice in the third set for 2-1 rallying from 0-30 with four consecutive points and 4-1. Roger Vasselin saved two break points in the seventh game to reduce the gap to 2-5. In the following game Tsonga closed out on his second match point.
Tsonga won 65% of his first serve points and hit 9 aces, 47 winners and committed 30 unforced errors.
