Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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Jo-Wilfried Tsonga continued the early-round exodus for the top seeds at the Rio Open, with the No. 3 seed losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to wild card and Rio de Janeiro resident Thiago Monteiro, the No. 338-ranked player in the world who was making his ATP World Tour debute.
No. 7 seed Fabio Fognini retired from his second round match while leading qualifier Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-4, 1-3. Half of the top seeds are now out, with No. 6 Jack Sock and No. 8 Thomaz Bellucci losing their opening matches on Tuesday.
No. 5 seed Dominic Thiem escaped the upset bug in taking care of Diego Schwartzman 7-6, 7-5 in his second round match Wednesday.
In the women's draw, wild card Sorana Cirstea upset No. 5 seed Polona Hercog, 7-5, 7-6(3), while American Shelby Rogers also advanced to the third round with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Veronica Cepede Royg. Francesca Schiavone was a three-set winner over Mariana Duque-Marino, while Cindy Burger dispatched of fellow qualifier Elitsa Kostova in straight sets.
OPEN 13 PROVENCE
Top-seed Stan Wawrinka survived two match points in a grueling three-set victory in the second round in Marseille, France, beating Sergiy Stakhovsky, 6-4, 4-6, 7-3(8) in a match that lasted just a shade under two hours.
Stakhovsky beat Wawrinka in the quarterfinals of the same event last year. It was Wawrinka's first match since the Australian Open.
"It was a great battle, I was lucky to get out of this," said Wawrinka, who fought back from being a break down in the final set. "The third set was complicated. I was lucky to be able to break him at the end of the match."
No. 4 seed Marin Cilic also need three sets to get past Robin Haase for a ticket into the third round, while No. 6 seed David Goffin made quick work of qualifier Mischa Zverev, 6-1, 2-0, with the German retiring at the 38-minute mark.
Another qualifier, France's Vincent Millot, upset countryman Nicolas Mahut, 6-7(1), 6-2, 6-3 in two hours and 11 minutes. In another dramatic match between Frenchmen, Quentin Halys beat David Guez, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3.
DELRAY BEACH OPEN
American Steve Johnson failed to reach the third round in Del Ray Beach, Fla., as the No. 6 seed lost 5-7, 7-6(1), 6-3 to Germany's Benjamin Becker.
Unseeded American Rajeev Ram did make it to the third round with a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over Illya Marchenko in a match that lasted more than two and a half hours. No. 8 seed Adrian Mannarino was also a three-set winner, surviving against Japanese qualifier Tatsuma Ito, 7-6(6), 6-7(4), 6-3 in the longest match of the day at two hours and 45 minutes.
DUBAI DUTY FREE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Ana Ivanovic continued her strong play to begin the 2016 season, upsetting top-ranked Simona Halep 7-6(2), 6-2 in Dubai. Halep had accepted a wild card to enter the event.
The draw was blown open Wednesday with all four of the top seeds losing. Joining Halep in second-round exits were No. 2 seed Garbine Muguruza, who fell in straight sets to Elina Svitolina (7-6(3), 6-3), No. 3 seed Carla Suarez Navarro, who lost in three sets to Caroline Garcia (4-6, 6-4, 6-3), and No. 4 seed Petra Kvitova, also a three-set loser to American Madison Brengle, 0-6, 7-6(1), 6-4.
Jelena Jankovic, who took out No. 5 seed Belinda Bencic in the first round Tuesday, turned around and lost in straight sets to Andrea Petkovic, 6-3, 6-2. With No. 6 seed Karolina Pliskova and No. 8 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova losing their openers on Monday, all of the eight seeded players failed to make it out of the second round.
American Coco Vandeweghe advanced to the third round with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Kristina Mladenovic. Sara Errani and Barbora Strycova were other winners Wednesday.
