Tsonga beats Istomin in 4 sets at Australian Open

Melbourne: Crowd favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame a couple of stutters in his first-round match at the Australian Open before beating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Tuesday.

The sixth-seeded Tsonga dropped the second set and then seemed to have regained control of an entertaining match on Margaret Court Arena. He had two match points at 5-2 in the fourth set, but Istomin saved both and broke back in the next game. Tsonga finally closed out the win on his third match point. The Frenchman lost the 2008 Australian Open final to Novak Djokovic for his best Grand Slam result. Bureau Report