Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made a successful South American debut at the Argentina Open tennis, easing past local Leonardo Mayer 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the quarter-finals.
The World No. 9 powered through the opening set against the 37th ranked Argentine, breaking twice to take it in just 25 minutes on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old was similarly dominant in the second set, breaking Mayer for 2-1 before racing to 3-1 with a love hold. He secured the double break for 5-2 and closed it out on his second match point just shy of an hour.
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The defeat consigned Mayer to his eighth straight loss against opponents within the top 10 rankings, with his lone victory in 25 matches coming against World No. 7 David Ferrer in the 2014 Hamburg final.
Tsonga is looking to reach his first clay court final here. He will next meet Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. Almagro earlier produced a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 result to beat Argentine Federico Delbonis.
