2011 French Open: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sails into the second round
Hard-hitting Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had a magnificent start to Roland Garros, as he defeated Jan Hajek of Czech Republic in the opening round on Sunday. 17th seed Tsonga had no trouble in disposing of his opponent
in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, taking almost two hours of play to make it to the second round of the Grand Slam event.
The home favourite displayed his sheer dominance on the clay court of Paris once more and absolutely devastated the Czech opponent to win his first match of this year’s French Open. He took the reins of the contest right from the
start and kept governing the matchup till the conclusion. Tsonga’s serve certainly lacked something to be desired but his overall power hitting was exceptional in the game.
The French had eight chances to break the opponent’s serve and he cashed in five of them en route to victory. Hajek crafted two break opportunities in the matchup but he was denied by Tsonga on both occasions. The Frenchman remained
unbroken throughout the contest and secured 89 total points to come out as the winner, while his opponent followed him with just 65.
Tsonga’s serve reached just 59 per cent in the game and fired eight rapid aces, conceding just one double fault. He beat his opponent in some segments of the game and gave no room to Hajek to get his impact upon the matchup. The
Czech delivered 64 percent of his first serve on target but his 28 unforced errors proved too much taxing for him.
Ranked 18th in the world, Tsonga was off to a flyer in the opening set and converted one of his three chances to break the opponent’s serve. He edged past the Czech opponent to seal the first set at 6-3 and get the upper
hand in the contest.
The French domination became more intense in the following set as Hajek slumped further. The Czech contestant played a number of errant strokes, spilling out 10 unforced errors and dropped his serve twice before Tsonga bagged the
second set as well at 6-2.
Hajek had nothing left in the third set and posed no real resistance to the tall French competitor. Tsonga powered his way to victory at 6-2, to book a berth in the second round of Roland Garros. Tsonga will either face his fellow
compatriot Florent Serra or Igor Andreev of Russia in the next round of the competition.
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