Jo-Wilfried Tsonga gets his Marseille campaign underway against Sergiy Stakhovsky.
Tsonga won this title two years ago and the sixth seed made a statement of intent with his first round win, a 6-1, 6-2 destruction of wildcard Benoit Paire. Tsonga dropped just three points on serve and is on a hot streak of form at the moment after reaching the Rotterdam final at the weekend.
Stakhovsky has a fine all-court game and possesses the ability in the forecourt to cause Tsonga a few problems in this second round clash. The Ukrainian has never quite been able to hit the same heights he reached as a junior, reaching a career best of 31 back in September. He was unlucky to draw Ivan Ljubicic in the Rotterdam first round last week but pushed the big Croatian fairly close and expect him to take Tsonga to at least one tiebreak.
They have met just once before on tour, Tsonga winning in straight sets at the 2010 Aussie Open.
If Tsonga wins he could be set for a potentially mouth-watering quarter-final with Mikhail Youzhny on Friday.
