Paris (AFP)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got off to a bad start in 2020, being badly beaten as soon as he entered the ATP 250 tournament in Doha by Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6 (11/9), 6-1, Wednesday.
Faced with a young 20-year-old player who broke out on the circuit last year - going from 132nd to 62nd place in the world today, including a first final on the circuit, in Antalya--, Tsonga n ' did not get a single break point in a first set in which the two players held up service until the decisive game.
Despite a mini-break quickly succeeded by Manceau, Kecmanovic, with a complete and very regular game, hung on to win this tie-break 11 points to 9.
Faced with the French, 30th in the world, who multiplied the direct faults and gradually let go, the second round was only a formality for Kecmanovic, author of two breaks to finally win in 1 h 14 min.
Not ranked well enough (French N.4) to participate in the ATP Cup, which takes place this week in Australia, Tsonga had ended the year 2019 by a defeat against another Serb, Filip Krajinovic, during the new Davis Cup formula at the end of November in Madrid.
Wednesday, Pierre-Hugues Herbert did not fail against another representative of the Serbian delegation, Laslo Djere (39th), which he dominated in two sets (6-1-6-3) in the second round. The Alsatian, 65th in the world, will face in the quarter-finals the Russian Andrey Rublev (23rd) who eliminated the Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin (66th) 6-4, 6-2.
© 2020 AFP