Valencia, Spain – On-the-mend American Sam Querrey stunned seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a second-round affair Thursday at the $1.905 million Valencia Open 500 tennis event.
The 24-year-old Querrey, playing his first tennis since mid-June, doused last week's Vienna titlist Tsonga in 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 fashion on the indoor hardcourts at Valencia's City of Arts and Sciences. The world No. 8 Tsonga is trying to qualify for the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London later this month.
In other second-round play, Argentine Juan Monaco mauled Italian Fabio Fognini 6-3, 6-1 and Spaniard Marcel Granollers cooled off last week's St. Petersburg champion Marin Cilic of Croatia in come-from-behind style, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Granollers was last year's Valencia runner-up to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer, this week's top seed. Ferrer also titled here in 2008 and was the runner-up in 2005.
Granollers will encounter third-seeded French star Gael Monfils on Friday.
Former top-five star Nikolay Davydenko advanced without lifting his racquet on Day 4, as France's Nicolas Mahut withdrew from their scheduled bout. Davydenko will face Ferrer in the round of eight.
The 2011 Valencia titlist will collect $455,000.
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