Qualifier Tsonga Stuns Defending Champion Hewitt

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French qualifier Jo-Wilfried Tsonga caused a sensational upset on day three of the Artois Championships as he defeated four-time winner Lleyton Hewitt 7-6(5), 7-6(2) at The Queen’s Club.

Not since 1998 has a defending Artois champion lost his opening match – on that occasion Mark Philippoussis lost to Jordi Burillo - coincidentally the same year Hewitt last suffered an opening match loss at The Queen’s Club.

“It's disappointing,” said Hewitt. “I would have liked more matches. Ball striking and serving for the most part was pretty good today. It's one of those grass court matches where, you know, you go down in two tie-breaks, you sort of don't know where it's gone a little bit… But to his credit, he kept going for his shots and they kept coming off.”

Tsonga, who has been enjoying an incredible run of form in recent months, has now won 30 of his last 31 matches at all levels since March, picking up four Challenger titles in the process.

“It’s the biggest win of my career,” said Tsonga. “He’s a great player, a great character, so I’m very happy. I went for my shots. It was a good show.”

The 22-year-old from Le Mans, who clinched his place in the main draw on Sunday by defeating George Bastl, jumped across to Surbiton later in the afternoon and won the Challenger title with a straight sets win over former Artois finalist Ivo Karlovic.

Playing against Hewitt, champion from 2000-02 and again last year, Tsonga showed no signs of nerves as he fired 11 of his 12 aces en route to taking the first set in the tie-break.

In the second set, Hewitt got an early break and led 4-1, as the former Wimbledon and US Open champion seemed to have unlocked the key to Tsonga’s game. However, the Frenchman produced more impressive returns to break Hewitt and bring the score back to 4-3, and then broke again to serve for the match at 6-5.

Like he has done on so many occasions, Hewitt’s dogged determination helped him break back and force another tie-break, but just when he might have thought the disappointment would get to Tsonga, Hewitt found himself facing five match points at 6-1 down.

Hewitt saved the first but could do nothing about the second as another forehand winner from Tsonga sealed a famous win, the biggest of the World No. 121’s career.

Tsonga, who has now won 10 consecutive matches on grass as well as his last 15 matches overall, will meet 18-year-old wild card Marin Cilic in the third round.