CASSIS, September 3, 2019

Three of the four seeded players in action on Tuesday advanced to the third round of the Cassis Open Provence. Dmitry Popko knocked out Frenchman Gleb Sakharov, No. 16 seed of the €46,600 ATP Challenger hard-court event.

The 22-year-old from Kazakhstan, who clinched seven titles on the ITF World Tennis Tour this season and advanced to the semi-finals in L’Aquila two weeks ago, sent down six aces to seal a 6-1, 6-2 victory in just under one hour of play. Popko awaits the winner of the match between third seed Malek Jaziri of Tunisia and Santiago Giraldo from Colombia.

Later in the day, top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga opened his title bid with a 6-4, 6-3 win over World No. 750 Harri Heliovaara of Finland. The 34-year-old Frenchman fired 19 aces, saved all three break points he faced and broke his opponent’s serve three times to advance in one hour and six minutes.

Tsonga is making his second appearance on the ATP Challenger Tour this season. In April he lost in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Primrose in Bordeaux to Filip Horansky of Slovakia. Up next for the World No. 65 will face either compatriot Antoine Escoffier or 13th seeded Briton Jay Clarke.

Look who’s in Cassis! Top seed @tsonga7 speaks to the local press after advancing to the third round.

🗒🔊 pic.twitter.com/hCrtYybAuw

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) September 3, 2019

Dudi Sela from Israel booked his place in the third round after a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 win over Sem Verbeek from the Netherlands. The No. 11 seed will next play No. 7 seed Ilya Ivashka from Belarus or Illya Marchenko from the Ukraine.

Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan remained untroubled to defeat Markus Eriksson from Sweden 6-3, 6-4 in one hour and 28 minutes to meet a Frenchman in the third round, either second seed Corentin Moutet or Hugo Grenier.

Photo Gallery (by Brigitte Urban)