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An exception to the rule among the French brigade, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga revels in tennis on grass.
He has twice been a semi-finalist at The Championships (2011 and 2012) and he looked thoroughly at home on Court 12 as he romped to a 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 second round win over Argentina’s Juan Monaco in just one hour 22 minutes.
It was a quick and timely finish to what had promised to be a frustrating day because of the weather. The two men had managed to get on court after an hour’s delay, only for their warm-up to be terminated by more rain. This time they were left to kick their heels for three hours before finally getting play under way.
The fact that Tsonga had beaten Monaco in all five of their previous meetings could only have helped his confidence about the outcome, and though this was their first match on grass it was rapidly apparent that victory number six was not far off. Tsonga opened proceedings with an ace, did not concede a point in his first two service games and broke Monaco to lead 3-1 when the Argentine took a spectacular tumble as he closed in on the net. Visibly shaken, he lost the next point and his serve.
Another service break put Tsonga 5-1 up and he had pocketed the set in just 19 minutes, having conceded a mere two points on serve. In contrast, Monaco had held serve only once, and that after fighting off a break point. Clearly, all was well in the world of the No.12 seed.
Although his timing subsequently was never quite so acute, Tsonga raced into a 3-0 lead in the second set, stifled a Monaco counter-attack and went emphatically two sets in front with still less than an hour gone by hammering down three successive aces. The clouds lifted, albeit briefly, for Monaco when he won the opening game of the third set but soon Tsonga was his dominant self, dropping a mere five points on serve and Monaco brought a miserable end to a bleak afternoon for him by double-faulting at match point.
Ten minutes later the rain returned, so Tsonga was entitled to be pleased with the speed of his victory. “Yeah, I’m really happy with the way it went today,” he said. “It’s better to go back home than having to stay here. I hope it’s going to be a good sign for me for the rest of the tournament. Today I played pretty good tennis, much better than in my first round, so I’m really happy. I hope it will continue this way.”
Tsonga is also entitled to be really happy because this, his 102nd single win in Grand Slams, equalled the record of Henri Cochet and leaves him one short of the all-time French record held by another of his nation’s famous Musketeers, Jean Borotra.
