Tsonga Qualifies And Wins Surbiton Challenger
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Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga booked his place in the main draw of the 2007 Artois Championships and then went on to win the Challenger title in Surbiton on the same afternoon.
Tsonga, who has jumped 91 places this year to a career-high No. 121, dropped only four games against Switzerland's George Bastl en route to a 6-4, 6-0 victory in the final round of the qualifying at The Queen's Club, having seen off challenges from British duo Joshua Goodall and Tom Rushby in the earlier rounds. He then went to Surbiton and overcame former Artois finalist Ivo Karlovic in straight sets to win his fourth Challenger title since March.
The Frenchman has now won five of his past six tournaments at Challenger and Futures level, and will now meet Denmark’s Kristian Pless in the first round of the main draw with the winner going on to face defending champion Lleyton Hewitt.
Meanwhile, Wayne Arturs’ hopes of playing in his ninth Artois Championships were dashed when he lost 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 7-6(7) to Serbia’s Dusan Vemic. With neither player forcing a break point in the 2-hour, 19-minute encounter, Arthurs failed to convert a match point at 7-6 in the final set tie-break and then double faulted two points later to hand Vemic a place in the main draw. He will now meet countryman Janko Tipsarevic in the first round.
Denmark’s Frederik Nielsen also saved a match point in the second set of his final qualifying match against Brazilian Marcelo Melo, recording a 6-7(6), 7-6(6), 6-0 victory to move into only his second career ATP tournament.
Nielsen’s first and so far only appearance at this level
came in Copenhagen in 2003, where he lost in the first round. The
Dane has been against fellow qualifier Alex Kuznetsov of the United
States, who completed the line-up when he came back from a set and
5-2 down against Gilles Muller before winning 6-7(7), 7-5, 7-5.