Tsonga marches on

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:51

World number seven Tsonga, looking for a fifth career singles title in the Japanese capital and his third of the year, completed the win in one hour and nine minutes.

He will now take on fellow Frenchman Richard Gasquet on Thursday after he also saw off a German opponent in the shape of Philipp Petzschner 6-3 6-2.

Sixth seed Radek Stepanek suffered a first-round upset to qualifier Ernests Gulbis. The Latvian hit 13 aces on his way to a 6-4 6-4 victory over the Czech, and now takes on Argentina’s Juan Monaco, who was 5-0 up in the first set against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez when the Spaniard was forced to quit the match with an injury.

In other matches, Mikhail Youzhny beat Thomaz Bellucci 6-2 6-3 to set up a clash with Gilles Simon while Andreas Beck beat fellow German Rainer Schuttler 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7/3) and will now face Tomas Berdych.

In second-round action, Switzerland’s seventh seed Stanislas Wawrinka was a 6-3 6-2 victor over Simon Greul and will next face fourth seed Gael Monfils of France, who beat Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 7-6 (7/5) 6-3.

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