The second day of the Open 13 Provence saw seven first-round singles matches and one doubles match. Seventh seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina was victorious, but sixth seed Kei Nishikori was defeated by Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Tsonga claims first match win in a year and a half
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied from a set down to knock off Feliciano Lopez 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 for his first ATP Tour-level win since 2019 as he improves his record against the Spaniard to 6-0.
39 year-old Lopez took the opening set behind two breaks of serve as Tsonga was yet to find his baseline game, but the three-time Marseille champion was level after securing the only break of the second set early on.
The Frenchman broke to take a 6-5 lead and on match point, fired his 19th and final ace to claim a most satisfying victory after two hours, eight minutes of play.
"This is one of the best victories of my career, because it was tough for me to play tennis. I had so much pain for so many months", he said following the match. "Today, I won one match. That was one of my goals for this week. I'm happy like a kid.
"Both of us, we are almost 80 years old together. I've known him for a long time and I have a lot of good memories with Feli. I'm really pleased that I won against him. For me, it's a good victory; he plays well indoors, he's a lefty, he's tall. I'm just happy today.
Nishikori dumped out by Herbert, Davidovich Fokina crushes Petros Tsitsipas in other action
Herbert played a flawless match to knock off sixth seed Nishikori, firing 11 aces and winning 25 of 30 first-serve points in the 70-minute encounter.
"I knew I would need to be aggressive from the start, as I knew Kei would be better than me from the baseline", he said after the match. "I cannot complain about anything today and I stuck to my game plan from the beginning to the end.
"I am very happy with the win. I kept moving forwards and didn't let him play."
Seventh seed Davidovich Fokina had no issues in knocking off wild card Petros Tsitsipas 6-0, 6-2 while qualifier Arthur Rinderknech upset 2019 finalist Mikhail Kukushkin 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden rallied from a set and a break down to defeat French wild card Benjamin Bonzi 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 in two hours, 27 minutes. Bonzi served for the match at 5-4 in the second set.
Lucas Pouille also advanced over Slovakian qualifier Alex Molcan while Mackenzie MacDonald came through against Stefano Travaglia 7-6 (2), 7-6 (1).
Top seeds victorious in doubles
In the only doubles match to be played, Ken Skupski and Neal Skupski began their quest for their first title since 2019 in Budapest by defeating McDonald and Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 6-3.