ATP: Moselle Open: Gojowczyk takes Tsonga out; Bachinger defeats Munar

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga returns to the tour with a defeat. At the 250cc tournament in Metz, he loses to defending champion Peter Gojowczyk in three sets. For the Germans there was another reason to be happy – Matthias Bachinger won against Jaume Munar 6:4 and 6:4.

Tsonga played his first match since 10 February 2018 when he had to give up against Lucas Pouille due to knee problems. The first round was dominated by strong serves, only Tsonga had to fend off a break point. Consequently, it went into the tiebreak, in which Tsonga scored a minibreak to 6:4 and then won the set 7:6 (5).

In the second part of the game, “Gojo” fended off a break point at 1:1. A short time later, the German himself led with a break. He took the serve off his opponent for 4:2 and won the set sovereign with 6:3.

In the third round the serve dominated again until the score of 4:4. But then Tsonga showed nerves, had to take a break and a short time later also the defeat. After winning 6:7 (5), 6:3 and 6:4, Gojowczyk will face top seed Kei Nishikori of Japan in the next round.

Matthias Bachinger, on the other hand, was rarely allowed to cheer for success. The 6-4 and 6-4 win over Jaume Munar from Spain marked the 31-year-old’s second victory of the season on the ATP Tour.

The 21-year-old from Munich proved to be extremely nervy, defended ten of eleven break points and was able to break Munar’s serve three times. In the next round Lucas Pouille is a big challenge for the qualifier.

The tableau of the Moselle Open at a glance