Top seed Tsonga survives first-round scare at China Open

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France survived a first-round scare as the top seed was stretched to two tight games by unheralded Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria before concluding the match 7-6(5), 7-5 here on Tuesday. World No. 7 Tsonga, a strong contender for one of the remaining four berths up for grabs at the ATP year-end Finals, is hoping to put up good performance this week to boost his chances, but he met unexpected resistance from world No. 70 Dimitrov in the match that lasted one hour and 48 minutes. "For me it was difficult to play Grigor because he's a really good player. For the first round, was not easy," said the 26-year-old Tsonga. In the opening set, both players showed stable form, landing more than 65 percent of their first services. The competition entered the tie-breaker as they saved all of their services, but the more experienced Tsonga converted his second set point in the tie-breaker as Dimitrov hit the ball into the net. Tsonga continued the momentum in the second set by breaking the first game, however, Dimitrov broke back in the sixth game to level at 3-all and then took a 5-4 lead. Tsonga denied the counter-strike of his 20-year-old opponent by claiming the next three games in a row and set up a second-round encounter with Chinese wildcard Zhang Ze, a winner over another Chinese wildcard Li Zhe 6-1, 6-3. "I didn't hit the ball really good, but I was on the court with my head and I did it," added Tsonga, who increased the head-to-head against Dimitrov to 3-0. Tsonge has fallen in the second round here in both of his previous appearances in 2004 and 2007, but those years he was nowhere near the top player he is now (he was ranked No. 209 in 2004 and No. 60 in 2007). "I think it (the tournament in 2004) was one of my first tournament on the tour, China Open is the story of my life. Now I'm here after seven years, and a lot of things happen during these years," said Tsonga. As a bunch of top players such as Novak Djokovic and Robin Soderling quit the China Open, Tsonga is regarded as a hot favorite. "Of course I have chance, but I'm not really consistent, sometimes I play really well and sometimes I play bad. So I never know."