France’s Jo-Wilifred Tsonga advanced to the second round of the US Open with a 6–4, 6–4, 6–4 win over Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu Tuesday afternoon. The straight-sets victory for the 26-year-old Tsonga was his first win at Flushing since exiting in the fourth round two years ago, which was also his best US Open result after back-to-back third round losses the preceding two years.
Tsonga, ranked as high as sixth near the end of 2008, seemed to set the pace with his 39 winners and 29 unforced errors—compared to 19 and 17 for the unseeded Lu. In addition, his service game was broken just once in the three sets, while he converted four of his nine break point opportunities.
Meanwhile, Lu’s loss was his third straight opening-round loss at the US’ annual event. The 28-year-old, currently ranked 82nd, was coming off his best Grand Slam result—a third round exit at Wimbledon in June.
The 11th seeded Tsonga, who upset six-time Wimbledon Champion Roger Federer at the All-England Club in June, will now face Ukraine’s Sergei Bubka in the round of 64.
