• ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament

Tsonga crashes out to home Dutch hope

ESPN staff
February 11, 2013
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lost to Igor Sijsling, 69 ranking places above him © PA Photos
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World No. 8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was dumped out of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam in the first round by Dutchman Igor Sijsling.

Sijsling, from Amsterdam, profited from the Frenchman's wasteful treatment of break points to win 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4 and take his first victory against a top-10 opponent.

In the first set, the world No. 77 lived off his wits to reach the tie-break as he repelled four break points against him before outplaying Tsonga when it mattered most.

In the second, Tsonga saw his first serve percentage drop off but he crucially converted one of his three break points and that was enough for the set. But in front of his home fans, Sijsling came back and with the scores at 4-4, he upped his game to take victory.

He will now play Martin Klizan in the next round after the Slovakian defeated Tsonga's compatriot Paul-Henri Mathieu in three sets.

Fifth seed Gilles Simon opened his campaign with a 7-6(3) 6-4 victory over Germany's Daniel Brands . The Frenchman won in one hour and 32 minutes and despite not dropping a set, he only converted three of his 10 break points.

Australian Bernard Tomic was defeated by Grigor Dimitrov 6-3 3-6 6-3. The Bulgarian served twice as many aces as Tomic but also committed four double faults to Tomic's none. In the deciding third set, however, he won 86% of his first serve points to earn a place in the second round against Nikolay Davydenko - after he beat eighth seed Florian Mayer in straight sets.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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