French showman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won a few thousand more admirers as he got off the mark at the ATP World Tour Finals with a virtuoso display against Mardy Fish on Tuesday.
Tsonga, who reached the last four at Wimbledon this year with his dazzling brand of attacking tennis, stayed in the hunt for a semi-final place with a 7-6, 6-1 defeat of the American who has now lost both his matches at the O2.
The world No. 6 will know exactly what he needs to do in his third Group B match against Rafa Nadal after the Spaniard faces Roger Federer.
Year-end tournament debutant Fish fought hard but was unable to manage Tsonga's powerful strokes. Federer beat Tsonga on Sunday in three sets and Nadal also needed a deciding set to overcome Fish.
"I played really well and it's good to win my first match here," Tsonga said on court after performing his trademark celebratory skip around the blue court. "I can play without pressure in my last match now."
Rohan-Aisam lose
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi lost their second match of the tournament after suffering a defeat at the hands of Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in their Group A tie. The fifth-seeded duo lost 6-7(6), 3-6 to the second-seeded French-Serbian combo.
Rohan-Aisam lose
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi lost their second match of the tournament after suffering a defeat at the hands of Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in their Group A tie. The fifth-seeded duo lost 6-7(6), 3-6 to the second-seeded French-Serbian combo.
Bopanna and Qureshi, who are now left with just one match in their group, committed as many as seven double faults in the match as compared to just one by their opponents.Scraping through
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic survived a match point on his way to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 defeat of Tomas Berdych in his opening group match on Monday. The Serb was given a thorough grilling by the Czech before sealing victory in two hours and 38 minutes.