By Chris Oddo | Tuesday October 16, 2018
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga earned his first victory since early February with a 7-5, 5-7, 7-6(5) victory over Guido Pella at the European Open in Antwerp.
The 33-year-old Frenchman spent most of 2018 on the sidelines after undergoing a minor surgery on his left knee. He missed the final three majors of the year and made his return to the court at Metz last month where he fell to Peter Gojowczyk in his opening match.
Today the World No.75 improved to 5-3 overall in 2018 and set up a second-round clash with Gael Monfils.
Monfils eased past Ruben Bemelmans, 6-0, 6-3. Tsonga leads Monfils 4-3 lifetime, but Monfils has won the last two meetings the pair have contested.
Tsonga, who dropped out of the Top 50 for the first time since 2007, won his 16th career title at Antwerp last year when he defeated Diego Schwartzman in the final.
In other action on Tuesday at Antwerp, Gilles Simon locked down his 450th career win, 6-0, 6-4 over Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Jan-Lennard Struff (d. Lestienne), Albert Ramos-Vinolas (d. Robert) and Ilya Ivashka (d. Haase) were also winners.