(Tennis news) It was a win for France and for two former top ten players at Open Sud de France as they recorded victories after several months on tour. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga recorded a victory after 11 months as he beat Kacper Zuk in the opening round. Zuk could not secure 5 breakpoints as Tsonga needed only three breaks to get the win in straight sets. The Frenchmen played his 12th match in a timespan of 3 years, last year he played 9 matches and in 2020 he only played 2 matches. Tsonga defeated Zuk 6-4, 6-4.

Gilles Simon also secured victory at Montpellier after a gap of four months on the tour. Simon was facing fellow country mate Lucas Pouille for the fifth time and was leading the head to head record with three victories. The former world number 6 took the crucial lead in the tiebreaker as Pouille came back in time to take the second. The 37 year old was serving well and after rallying for 3 hours he finally set up a meeting with Roberto Bautista Agut. Simon defeated Pouille 7-6(7-4), 7-5. 6-4.

Hugo Gaston suffered his third consecutive loss this year when he was knocked out by Soonwoo Kwon. Gaston’s poor serve selection gave Kwon 18 breakpoint chances of which he converted 5 of them while Gaston did not have a single breakpoint. Kwon only lost two points of his 27 first serves as he got his fourth victory of the season in an hour. Kwon defeated 6-2, 6-1.

Mikael Ymer continued his form into the season with a well timed victory against Corentin Moutet. It was the first meeting between the pair as Ymer’s defense gave way for most of the points in the match. Moutet tried his best with the forehand groundstrokes but was sliced back at him by Ymer whose returns were even better in the second set. Ymer defeated Moutet 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert had first faced Peter Gojowczyk 12 years back in the Dominican Republic at a challenger event. Herbert now is only four wins away from 100 career victories as he will next face Alexander Bublik for a place in the quarterfinals. Peter had a break in the first set but could not keep the lead as the 30 year old had his powerful serve to make a comeback. Herbert served 9 aces in the match and Peter had 5 double faults. In the second set, an early break gave Herbert the green signal to proceed to the fourth round. Herbert defeated Peter 7-5, 6-2.

Also read: Zverev looking to bounce back at Montpellier after early exit in Australia