France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the second round of Wimbledon this afternoon after winning a memorable five-set encounter with Gilles Muller.
The Frenchman battled with his Luxembourgish opponent for well over three hours to finally clinch victory at 7-6 6-7 6-4 3-6 6-2 on Number Two court in SW19.
Failing to read too much into his recent knee problems, Muller stood out offensively in the opening games after building a 5-4 lead with some strong work on the forehand.
Tsonga rallied impressively to remain in the opening set as he won off his own serve to claw the scores back to 5-5 just as Muller seemed to be pulling out in front, and the Frenchman soon went on to claim a hard-fought tie-break to take the first set 7-6.
Both players continued to showcase efficiency on the serve as they moved relatively unchallenged to 3-3, before Muller later took the initiative to edge a set back in the game's second tie-break with a 7-3 win in the extra period.
For over two hours the match moved without either opponent being able to break one another, until Tsonga proved a little too much for Muller in the third as the 30-year-old broke Muller on his way to sealing the set 6-4.
Muller was unmoved early in the fourth set and he broke Tsonga in the initial stages to take a 2-0 lead, which soon evolved into a 6-4 advantage to take the contest into a fifth and final round.
Both players kept up the intensity despite the blazing sunshine in South London, and it was Tsonga who really ramped up his efforts having broken his opponent again in game four to move to seal progression at 6-1 in the final set.
Christopher Dodd
