Tsonga advances at Japan Open

Second-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat French compatriot Richard Gasquet 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 on Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Japan Open.

Tsonga broke Gasquet to go up 5-2 in the third set and then won when his opponent’s forehand return at 40-30 was long.

Both players struggled with the windy conditions at Ariake Colosseum as Typhoon Melor moved northward across Japan’s main island of Honshu.

“It was tough to make a good show with the wind today,” Tsonga said. “But I’m happy with the win. It’s never easy playing a good friend but that’s the way it goes.”

Tsonga will face the winner of a later match between Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis and Argentina’s Juan Monaco.

In other second round matches, Australian Lleyton Hewitt advanced to the quarterfinals when he recovered from a slow start to defeat France’s Fabrice Santoro 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

The eighth-seeded Hewitt, who won this tournament in 2001, took control of the match in the second set when he broke Santoro three times.

“He was serving well in the first set and didn’t give me a look in,” Hewitt said. “I started serving better in the second, got a few breaks in and got better and better as the match went on.”

Edouard Roger-Vasselin, who knocked out U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro in the first round, continued his run by defeating Austria’s Jurgen Melzer 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 while defending champion Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic coasted to a 6-4, 6-1 win over Germany’s Andreas Beck.

Roger-Vasselin will takes on Hewitt in the quarterfinals.