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10/29/09 8:34 PM | Ricky Dimon
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga cruises past Olivier Rochus to reach the Lyon quarterfinals on Thursday night. Next up for the No. 1 seed is fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga put his French fans through plenty of suspense in round one, but he was not about to do the same on Thursday night.
After scraping by Kevin Kim in two tiebreakers on Tuesday, Tsonga dominated Olivier Rochus 6-3, 6-2 in round two of the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon. Tsonga needed just one hour and four minutes to set up a quarterfinal clash with veteran compatriot Arnaud Clement.
Tsonga took the first set with a single break of serve, but not before running into a considerable amount of difficulty. The eighth-ranked Frenchman saved two break points at 1-1 to stay on serve, then fell behind 0-30 at 2-2. Suddenly, however, the crowd favorite woke up and won eight straight points to seize a 4-2 advantage. Rochus never came close to getting back on serve against Tsonga, who fired three aces in the opening game of the match and nine for the set. A routine love hold at 5-3 finished off the opening frame of play for Tsonga.
From there Rochus had little chance. The 5'6'' Belgian dropped serve at 1-1 as his opponent was nothing short of being on fire throughout the second set. Tsonga broke again at 3-1 before Rochus finally got back on the scoreboard with a hold for 2-5. Lyon's No. 1 seed, who lost a mere three service points in set two despite connecting on only 37 percent of his first deliveries, served out the match at love in overwhelming fashion. Aces at 30-0 and 40-0 gave Tsonga 13 for the night.
Tsonga won 20 of 25 first-serve points and double-faulted just once, but while his serve was impressive, his all-court game was especially devastating. Rochus, meanwhile, stuck no aces and won only 57 percent of the points when he put his first serve in play.
Clement, who dispatched No. 7 seed Benjamin Becker in straight sets on Thursday, has never faced Tsonga. Four other Frenchman are already through to the Lyon quarterfinals as well, and it will soon be seven when either Gilles Simon or David Guez books a spot in the last eight later on Thursday night.
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