Tsonga downs Montanes en route to second round in Casablanca
CASABLANCA, Morocco -- Australian Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France defeated Albert Montanes of Spain 6-4, 7-6 (10) Monday in the first round of the Grand Prix Hassan II tournament.
Two seeded players were beaten in the clay-court tuneup for the French Open: sixth-seeded Chris Guccione of Australia and eighth-seeded Victor Hanescu of Romania.
Tsonga, who is seeded first, was joined in the second round by second-seeded Gael Monfils of France, third-seeded Agustin Calleri of Argentina, fourth-seeded Marc Gicquel of France and fifth-seeded Julien Benneteau of France.
Tsonga will next meet Algerian wild-card Lamine Ouahab, who beat Argentina's Martin Vassallo Arguello 7-5, 6-2.
Monfils defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-0; Calleri ousted Thierry Ascione of France 3-6, 6-1, 6-2; Gicquel eliminated Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 6-3, 6-0; and Benneteau rallied past Florian Mayer of Germany 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Germany's Rainer Schuettler downed Guccione 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2, and Morocco's Younes El Aynaoui topped Hanescu 6-2, 6-7 (6), 6-3.
Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press
