There are rivals that historically choke tennis players. This is the case of Jo-Wilfried Tosnga, who has never been able to win Feliciano lopez. They had not met since the end of 2012 (Beijing) and the French dominated the particular balance by 5-0. They met again this Tuesday in Marseille and their history did not change, the French won again: 3-6, 6-4 and 7-5. The Spanish was close, as 12 years ago on the same stage, but a break in the eleventh game of the third set, in the first opportunities he had Tsonga in that set, put an end to Feli's illusions.
Le Mans had not won an ATP match since October 2019, when he beat German Struff in the round of 16 at the Masters 1,000 in Paris (days later he beat the Japanese Uchiyama in the Davis Cup). Injuries only allowed him to play two games in 2020, in Doha and the Australian Open, and this season he debuted with a defeat against Sebastián Korda for a few days in Montpellier. He had to meet again with defeat against an opponent whose morale has food. In the end, he was even happy for the triumph of his rival and at the same time an old acquaintance. “We have been together on the circuit for almost 18 years, we have known each other for a long time and we have good memories of our games,” said the Frenchman.
And that from the beginning López sent, with a good first set, which opened and closed with breaks and in which he had more chances to break Tsonga's serve. The second set escaped him due to a mistake in the first game and the consequent break that he could no longer counteract. And the third was entitled to a tiebreaker frustrated by a game without first services from Toledo, who will have to keep waiting to beat the French, if the opportunity presents itself. Tsonga, who was three times champion in Marseille and number five in the world but now has a worse ranking than Feliciano (he is 66th and the Spaniard 61st), His compatriot and fourth seed, Hugo Humbert, will be measured in the second round.
Davidovich sweeps the other Tsitsipas
Alejandro Davidovich had no problem getting rid of Petros Tsitsipas, Stefanos brother, which has neither the quality nor the ranking (970th) of the winner of the 2019 ATP Finals. The man from Malaga beat the Greek in 45 minutes by 6-2 and 6-0. It was a tremendous beating in which good old Petros was only able to take three points from the rest. Davidovich, seventh seed, will meet French qualifier Arthur Rinderknech (25 years and 138th), who surprised Kazakh Kukushkin.
Table and results.