Qualifier Mannarino Notches Top 10 Upset In Monte-Carlo

Adrian Mannarino recorded one of the biggest wins of his career on Tuesday at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters when he beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-3 for a place in the third round.

World No. 56 Mannarino, who won two matches in qualifying and beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Monday, dictated with his potent backhand and forays to the net to improve to 2-18 lifetime against players in the Top 10 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. His only previous win over an elite player came against the then No. 8-ranked Stan Wawrinka in March 2015 at the Miami Open presented by Itau.

Seventh seed Tsonga got off to a fine start, sweeping to a 3-0 lead, but Mannarino recovered to 3-3 and, in hot conditions, the first set was decided by a tie-break. Tsonga took a 4/1 lead and finished the 52-minute opener with a forehand winner down the line. Mannarino responded to surge to a 5-0 lead in the second set, leaving a capacity crowd primed for a decider.

Having saved one break point in the third game of the deciding set, Mannarino broke Tsonga to 15 for a 3-1 lead. Tsonga, the 2013 and 2016 semi-finalist, continued to battle in his first match since 11 March at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Tsonga got back to 3-4 but broke a string when hitting a forehand at 15/40 to gift Mannarino a chance to serve for the match. The 28-year-old Mannarino was not to be denied his seventh match win of the 2017 ATP World Tour season, which lasted two hours and five minutes.

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Tsonga became a father for the first time with the birth of his son, Shugar, on 18 March, and celebrated his 32nd birthday at the Monte-Carlo Country Club on Monday. Mannarino, who told reporters he had trained for 10 days prior to coming to the Monte-Carlo Country Club, will now meet French compatriot and No. 11 seed Lucas Pouille or Italian Paolo Lorenzi.

Pouille gained safe passage past the lone American in the draw, Ryan Harrison, 6-2, 6-4 in 72 minutes. Harrison, this year’s Memphis titlist, was playing his first tournament since getting married to Lauren McHale on 31 March in Austin, Texas. Lorenzi was a 6-2, 6-4 winner over Marcel Granollers.

“It was a good start for the tournament, very solid,” said Pouille. “From the beginning to the end, I played well, except for one game where I got broken. Other than that, I’m very happy with this first round.”

Tommy Haas made a welcome return to the Monte-Carlo Country Club by beating Benoit Paire 6-2, 6-3 in 68 minutes. The oldest player in the draw, aged 39, is competing at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the first time since 2008 and notched his first win since 2004 (d. Malisse, l. to Chela). Haas now gets a shot at ninth seed Tomas Berdych in the second round.