Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga closed proceedings on day 1 of 2014 Roland Garros on Philippe Chatrier Court  with a comfortable 7-6(4) 7-5 6-2 victory over fellow Frenchman, Edouard Roger-Vasselin.  For the most part, it was a good performance from Tsonga and he did well to close out Roger-Vasselin in straight sets as ERV was one of the more dangerous unseeded players.  The scoreline could have been more even more straightforward; Tsonga was wasteful at times and in the first two sets, twice failed to consolidate a break of serve.  He was 5 out of 15 on break points and will need to be more efficient as the tournament progresses.

Apart from a few points of interest, this certainly wasn’t a classic and the home crowd remained relatively quiet throughout the two hour and 21 minute encounter.  It wasn’t until towards the end of the third set that the crowd got involved when Roger-Vasselin survived a six-deuce game to force Tsonga to close out the match.  After two tight sets where he at least made the match competitive, Roger-Vasselin appeared to be struggling in the third set as he required painkillers from the doctor.  Overall this was a solid start to the tournament for Tsonga and even more so after what has been a shaky 2014.  Personally, I think the knee injury he picked up at Wimbledon in 2013 was still bothering him at the start of the year and he was not 100%.  He is still lacking confidence, but appears to be in a better place than he was a couple of months ago.  In the second round, Tsonga will play David Goffin or Jurgen Melzer.