TENNIS – It was a good day for three of the most popular French tennis stars Jo Wilfred Tsonga Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet. Tsonga fired 11 aces to overcome Lukas Rosol 7-5 6-3, while Monfils cruised past Lukas Rosol 6-2 6-0 dropping just 15 of his first service points. Richard Gasquet beat Ivo Karlovic 6-3 6-4 Diego Sampaolo
Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Lukas Rosol played on serve without earning any break points until 6-5. Tsonga converted on the first break point chance on the set point for 7-5. Tsonga raced out to 3-0 en route to winning the second set easily with 6-3.
Monfils also won easily against Troicki breaking serve twice in the third and the sixth games of the first set. Monfils stormed out to 5-0 before Troicki saved three match points in the sixth game. He faced two break points but he saved them before sealing the win on the fourth match point.
Gasquet confirmed his good form after his win in Estoril against Nick Kyrgios last week-end. The Frenchman broke serve in the eight game of the first set and in the seventh game of the second set to take an easy win over Karlovic. Gasquet will face Tomas Berdych in the second round. Gasquet leads 6-5 in their head-to-head matches but Berdych won their previous match in Doha last Janiary.
Grigor Dimitrov was leading Donald Young 6-4 3-0 when the US player was forced to withdraw because of a lower back problem. The Bulgarian player will take on Fabio Fognini
Dimitrov saved a break point in the sixth game for 3-3 before getting the break in the seventh game. The next three games went on serve and Dimitrov wrapped up the first set with 6-4. Dimitrov raced out to 3-0 before Young was forced to withdraw
Milos Raonic beat Juan Monaco 6-3 6-4. The Canadian got the only break of the first set in the fourth game en route to winning the first set with 6-3. Monaco posed a more serious challenge in the second set which went on serve until the sixth game until Raonic got the break before clinching the win despite some physical problems.
David Ferrer rallied from a set down to edge past Istanbul finalist Pablo Cuevas 3-6 6-3 6-4 setting up a match against Leonardo Mayer who beat Giles Muller 6-3 6-3.
Stan Wawrinka battled past Joao Sousa 7-6 7-5 after a hard-fought match.
Wawrinka made a double fault in the first game and dropped his serve. In the sixth game the Lausanne player earned a break point but he failed to convert it and went down 2-4.
Sousa served for the set at 5-3 but Wawrinka broke back for 4-5 on his third break point and held his serve in the next game. The set came down to the tie-break Wawrinka earned the decisive mini-break and cruised ti 7.1 in the tie-break.
The second set went on serve until 5-5. Sousa held his first two service games to take a 2-1 lead in the second set. Both players did not earn a single break point in the first seven games Wawrinka held his serve to love to draw level to 5-5 before getting the only break of the set on his third chance for 6-5. Sousa saved the first two match points. Wawrinka had to save a break point before converting on his third match point. Wawrinka will take on either Dimitrov or Fognini in the third round. Dimitrov recently beat Wawrinka in Monte-Carlo.
