Tsonga lands in Metz quarters

Metz, France – Top seed and defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was an easy second-round winner Wednesday at the Moselle Open tennis event.

The French crowd favorite Tsonga cruised past qualifier fellow countryman Clement Reix 6-3, 6-3 on the indoor hardcourts at Metz Expo Parc. Tsonga popped six aces and was not broken in the 79-minute affair.

Tsonga, who enjoyed an opening-round bye this week, defeated former titlist Ivan Ljubicic in last year's Metz finale. A Frenchman has captured the last three Moselle Open titles (Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils).

Also in the second round, fourth-seeded German Florian Mayer fought back to best American veteran James Blake 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-4.

In a first-round match involving a seed, No. 5 Andreas Seppi of Italy overcame Croat Ivan Dodig 6-7 (7-9), 6-3, 6-4.

Frenchman Nicolas Mahut beat German Daniel Brands by a 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-4) margin.

Additional opening-round wins came for American Jesse Levine, Luxembourg's Gilles Muller and German lucky-loser Michael Berrer. The journeyman Levine took out German Cedrik-Marcel Stebe 6-3, 6-2, while Muller fired 14 aces in beating French wild card Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.