Jo-Wilfried Tsonga shook off jet lag to defeat 37-year-old Tommy Haas 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the Erste Bank Open second round in Vienna and keep his ATP World Tour Finals hopes alive.
French star Tsonga only arrived in Vienna on Tuesday night after losing the Shanghai Masters final against Novak Djokovic on Sunday. He overcame 32 unforced errors, counterbalanced by 41 winners and five breaks of serve, to deny Haas, playing on a world No. 466 ranking after coming back from a third shoulder surgery.
“I arrived in Europe and had had two nights at home in Switzerland,” Tsonga said. “When I got here on Tuesday night, I had a hit on the court before going to the hotel. During the match, I was really tired, especially during the second set, but Haas is not playing his best yet. I struggled, but I held on for the win. It was good to win, but I need to recover for the next round.”
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Tsonga, seeded fourth, is in the mix for one of two remaining places in the eight-man singles field at the ATP World Tour Finals in London on Nov. 15.
He stands provisional ninth with Vienna top seed David Ferrer holding eighth behind Japan’s Kei Nishikori.
Haas said that he is already looking ahead to next year when he will be playing for at least the first half of the season with a protected ranking due to his injury comeback, but his defeat by Tsonga still stung.
“How can you be happy when you lose? It’s never a good feeling, but I’m pleased that I’m still playing good tennis. I have a lot of work to do, though,” the former world No. 2 said.
Second seed Kevin Anderson began with a 6-4, 7-5 win to eliminate the last Austrian in the field, Andreas Haider-Maurer, a victory punctuated by 19 aces from the big South African.
Unpredictable Latvian Ernests Gulbis out-aced John Isner 23 to 16 in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 knockout of the American third seed to reach the quarter-finals.
The defeat meant that Isner’s already slim chances of qualifying for the eight-man field in London took a major hit as the provisional 12th-placed candidate was beaten.
Gulbis, who has ridden a ranking roller-coaster in his patchy career, stands at a humble No. 117 in the world.
The Latvian son of a millionaire businessman improved to 3-2 over Isner, who had won their previous two meetings.
Gulbis went up an early break in the final set and held the edge until the conclusion.
ATP Tour all-time serving king Ivo Karlovic beat Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 7-5 with the seventh seed firing a mere 10 aces.
In another first-round match, Italian eighth seed Fabio Fognini defeated Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the pair’s first meeting since 2009.
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