Home hero Tsonga’s late-night heroics in vain

Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal reached the French Open third round but Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s late-night heroics proved in vain as he suffered his first opening-round loss at a grand slam in a decade.

The Frenchman was on the ropes against world number 91 Renzo Olivo when play was finally stopped at 9.55pm on Tuesday night. Tsonga had just broken back to trail 5-4 in the fourth set and by two sets to one, meaning he immediately had to serve to stay in the match when it resumed yesterday.

But he lasted just one game - albeit a dramatic one. After pulling back from 40-0 to huge cheers from the crowd on Court Philippe Chatrier, Tsonga missed a chance to level at 5-5 before Olivo took his fourth match point to win 7-5 6-4 6-7 (6/8) 6-4.