Tsonga puts France up 2-0 over Germany

TOULON, France, March 5 (UPI) -- Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, with a four-set win Friday, stayed unbeaten in Davis Cup play and helped France to a 2-0 lead over Germany in their best-of-five series.

Tsonga, No. 11 in the world, defeated Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (2-7), 6-3 in improving to 5-0 in career Davis Cup singles matches. Frenchman Gael Monfils opened the series with a 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) win over Philipp Kohlschreiber.

The matches are being played indoors in Toulon on a hard-surface court.

Tsonga piled up 75 winners over the course of his match. He was the aggressor throughout, as shown by his 19 aces -- and nine double faults. He got just 60 percent of his first serves in but still only faced six break points. He broke Becker's serve six times in 15 break-point chances.

Monfils had 71 winners in his win and collected nearly as many points (57-65) on Kohlschreiber's serve as the German did.

The French doubles team of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra will look to lock up the series Saturday against Kohlschreiber and Christopher Kas.

Sunday's schedule has the reverse singles with Tsonga meeting Kohlschreiber and Monfils playing Becker.

The winner of the series goes into the Davis Cup quarterfinals against eighth Spain or Switzerland in July.