Home favourite Tsonga falls at first hurdle

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 No 91 Renzo Olivo when play was finally stopped at 9.55pm on Tuesday.

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 hugecheersfromthecrowdon 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.

It was the biggest shock of the men’s draw so far.

Olivo will now meet Britain’s Kyle Edmund in round two.

Djokovic and Nadal posted identical scorelines, with the defending champion seeing off Joao Sousa 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 before Nadal defeated Robin Haase.

Title favourite Nadal was the more impressive of the two, hitting 33 winners and denying Dutchman Haase a single break point.

British No 3 Aljaz Bedene lost in the second round to Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.