ATP Montpellier: Tsonga wins first match in 2022
At the tournament in France, an absolute crowd favorite was once again really happy after a long time.
by Armin Leiter
last edit:
Feb 01, 2022, 09:42 pm
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, after all a former Australian Open finalist, but has now slipped down to position 259 due to injury, defeated the Pole Zuk 6:4 and 6:4. He has only played one match since Wimbledon, at the Challenger last week in Quimper, so now the first win after a long break at ATP level. In the subsequent interview with the winner, the 36-year-old was obviously relieved and happy. In the round of 16 he now meets Filip Krajinovic from Serbia, number five on the seed list.
In the purely French duel between Pouille and Simon, both of whom have seen much better times as former top ten players, the latter finally won after almost 3 hours of play with 7:6 5:7 and 6:4. Alexander Bublik defeated Tallon Griekspoor from the Netherlands 7:6 and 7:6.
No repetition of the success of the previous year
Unfortunately, Peter Gojowczyk was not able to build on the successes of last year when he advanced to the semi-finals of the tournament in southern France and only lost to Roberto Bautista-Agut. The 32-year-old only kept up against local hero Pierre-Hugues Herbert in the first set, from the fifth game in the second set he only got three points.
Alexander Zverev only gets into the tournament on Thursday, when he meets the winner of the game Ivashka against McDonald. After the rather disappointing performance in Australia he will return highly motivated, but unfortunately he already lost the doubles match with Marcelo Melo on Tuesday. Zverev, who by his own admission did not watch the entire final Nadal against Medvedev on Sunday, but the last part, only had words of praise for the Spaniard. "What Rafa did on Sunday is unbelievable, he is extraordinary," said the German number one.
Strong competition for Zverev
The field of participants in Montpellier promises great games, with Bautista-Agut, Monfils as well as Basilashvili and Bublik there are some top players at the start who can cause problems for Zverev on the way to the title.