Baghdatis Records 300th Match Win, Faces Tsonga Next

Marcos Baghdatis reached the 300 match wins milestone as he defeated Gilles Muller 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 on Tuesday at Roland Garros, setting up a second-round meeting with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The 30-year-old Cypriot notched his first victory since a quarter-final run last month in Houston (l. to Sock), improving to a 300-223 career mark and 11-8 on the season. In February, he had reached his 13th tour-level final at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships (l. to Wawrinka).

Baghdatis, a former World No. 8, will look to defeat fellow Australian Open finalist Tsonga for the first time in their seventh FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting. Tsonga cruised through their lone clay-court clash in Rome in 2011. “I don’t want to give him any opportunities. I don’t even want him to believe that there’s a door that’s slightly open,” Tsonga said. “I will be really strong, and we’ll see.”

The sixth seed opened with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff. Tsonga, a two-time semi-finalist at Roland-Garros, won his first-round match in Paris for the eighth time in nine appearances. Earlier this month, Tsonga had to withdraw from the Internazionali BNL d’Italia because of an adductor injury.

“I feel more reassured. That is, now I can play my tennis completely. We had interesting rallies and physically I did what I wanted to do,” Tsonga said.

David Goffin, playing with his highest Grand Slam seed yet, upset the home crowd by beating French wild card Gregoire Barrere 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.

The 12th-seeded Goffin broke the Frenchman six times to move on in straight sets. The Belgian, who made the third round in Roland Garros last year, is looking to build on his strong season to date. The 25 year old reached back-to-back semi-finals in Indian Wells and Miami. In Rome earlier this month, he became the first player on tour to beat Tomas Berdych 6-0, 6-0.