ATP World Tour No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withstood the challenge of former No. 1 Marat Safin to move into the second round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over the Russian on Tuesday at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 clay-court tournament.
The Frenchman broke decisively in the 10th game of the first set to steal it 6-4, having faced a break point himself at 4-4. The second set also went down to the wire, with Tsonga again stepping up a gear in the late stages to break Safin to 15 in the 12th game and wrap up victory in their first meeting after 89 minutes.
Tsonga, who received his trophy as the 2008 ATP Most Improved Player of the Year following the match, said: "Today I am happy with my game, I played great tennis, offensive tennis. I played some good serves, some good volleys and I was really aggressive so I am happy today."
The 24 year old made his debut in Madrid last year with a third-round loss to Roger Federer. He next goes on to face Ivan Ljubicic. The No. 2 Frenchman has compiled a 26-6 match record on the season, a striking comparison to 2008 – when he did not win his 26th match until the third week in October in Lyon. The 2008 Australian Open runner-up won his third and fourth ATP World Tour titles at Johannesburg (d. Chardy) and Marseille (d. Llodra) in February, and has reached the quarter-finals at five further tour-level tournaments this year.
World No. 20 Safin captured the Madrid title in 2004 with back-to-back victories over World No. 7 Andre Agassi and No. 10 David Nalbandian). The 29-year-old Russian slipped to a 6-9 match record on the season, and to a 0-3 mark against Top 10 players.
"I didn’t feel comfortable at any moment in the match, so I was all the time playing behind and I tried to find my game," said Safin. "I couldn’t do anything special so it was annoying to be there on the court and not be able to find the game, so basically I had to wait for his mistakes. It was a little bit absurd, so, it’s a disappointment but what can you do?"
Stanislas Wawrinka, the No. 11 seed from Switzerland, made a confident start to his campaign with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Italian qualifier Marco Crugnola. Wawrinka saved four of five break points and converted six of 10 break point opportunities on No. 188 Crugnola’s serve to wrap up just his second victory in Madrid after 59 minutes.
World No. 18 Wawrinka is coming off third-round exits at Barcelona (l. to Stepanek) and ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rome (l. to del Potro). He enjoyed his greatest success of the season in Monte-Carlo at the start of the European clay-court season, when he defeated compatriot Roger Federer en route to reaching the semi-finals (l. to Djokovic). The 24-year-old Wawrinka next will face either Frenchman Jeremy Chardy or Jose Acasuso of Argentina.
Italian Simone Bolelli set up a second-round clash with new World No. 3 and defending champion Andy Murray after edging out Argentine qualifier Juan Ignacio Chela 7-5, 7-6(3). The No. 61-ranked Bolelli, who is closing in on his 50th tour-level victory (46-60 record), also met Murray in the second round last year and was forced to retire injured in the second set.
Meanwhile, German qualifier and former World No. 2 Tommy Haas battled to a 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 win over 20-year-old Latvian Ernests Gulbis in two hours and 17 minutes. Though he conceded four of five break points faced on serve, Haas capitalised on six of his 16 opportunities against Gulbis to reach the second round.
Haas, who entered the week ranked No. 75, is playing in his first tournament since a quarter-final finish in Houston last month (l. to Phau). The 31 year old takes a 7-4 head-to-head record into his next match against World No. 6 Andy Roddick, including a 4-0 mark on clay. Roddick will be making his 2009 clay-court debut in his first appearance as a married man; he wed model Brooklyn Decker on 17th April in Austin, Texas.
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_3634.ASP)
