LONDON: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga became the latest star to crash out of Queen’s Club as the world No. 10 was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller on Wednesday.
After world No. 1 Andy Murray, three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka and former Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic all endured shock first-round defeats on Tuesday, it was Tsonga’s turn to suffer a surprise second-round exit.
Fifth-seeded Tsonga is traditionally a powerful force on grass and finished as Queen’s runner-up in 2011, while twice appearing in the Wimbledon semifinals.
But the 32-year-old, who has won titles in Lyon, Marseille and Rotterdam in 2017, was out of sorts from start to finish against the big-serving Muller.
It took Muller just 69 minutes to hand Tsonga another frustrating loss on the heels of his embarrassing first-round exit against Renzo Olivo at the French Open.
“Sometimes you cannot do anything because the guy in front of you is doing the right things to make you play in a bad way,” Tsonga said.
“I played two matches here. That’s life. I’ll try to play better in Wimbledon.
“I have to put a little bit more energy in my game.”
Muller’s impressive display maintained his recent surge, which has seen the 34-year-old win the ‘s-Hertogenbosch grass-court tournament last week and reach a career-high ranking of 26.
Muller is in the quarterfinals at the Wimbledon warm-up event for a third successive year and will play former Queen’s champion Sam Querrey or Australia’s Jordan Thompson for a place in the last four.
Grigor Dimitrov fought back to avoid becoming yet another big name casualty as the Bulgarian world number 11 defeated France’s Julien Benneteau 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Dimitrov won Queen’s in 2014 and, given the way the tournament has unfolded, the sixth seed must fancy his chances of claiming the title again.
The 26-year-old was pushed hard by the world number 87 in almost two hours on court in searing heat, but he battled through to set up a quarterfinal clash with Australian wild card Thanasi Kokkinakis or Russia’s Daniil Medvedev.
It is the first time Dimitrov has made the last eight of an ATP event since Rotterdam in February.
Donald Young reached the Queen’s quarter-finals for the first time as the American world number 55 defeated Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 6-3, 6-4.
Young, who arrived at Queen’s on a five-match losing streak, faces former US Open champion Marin Cilic or American qualifier Stefan Kozlov with a semifinal berth at stake.
Tsonga latest star to fall at Queen’s
Tsonga latest star to fall at Queen’s
Trump said Iran ‘welcome to compete’ in World Cup, says Infantino
US President Donald Trump has said that Iran is “welcome” to participate at the upcoming World Cup in North America, despite the ongoing Middle East war, FIFA chief Gianni Infantino said on Wednesday.
The war, triggered by US-Israeli strikes on February 28, has thrown into doubt Iran’s participation at this summer’s men’s football World Cup, jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.
During a meeting to discuss preparations for the competition, “we also spoke about the current situation in Iran,” Infantino, the head of world football’s governing body, wrote on Instagram.
“During the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,” he wrote.
The comments marked the first time that Infantino, who in December created a FIFA peace prize and awarded it to Trump, has acknowledged the ongoing war in the Middle East.
Trump’s remarks to Infantino are a stark contrast to his comments to Politico last week.
Trump told Politico: “I really don’t care” if Iran play at the World Cup.
FIFA’s president has grown close to Trump since he returned to the White House, even attending his inauguration.
Asylum claims
Iran’s federation football chief on Tuesday cast doubt on his team’s participation in the sporting extravaganza, following the defection of several women footballers from the Islamic republic during the Asian Cup in Australia.
“If the World Cup is like this, who in their right mind would send their national team to a place like this?” Mehdi Taj asked on Iranian state television.
While the event is spread out across three countries, Iran are scheduled to play all three group games in the United States, two in Los Angeles and one in Seattle.
Should Iran withdraw from the sport’s quadrennial showpiece, it would be the first time a country did that since France and India pulled out of the 1950 finals in Brazil.
On Tuesday, at the Women’s Asian Cup in Australia, some players from Iran’s team claimed asylum after they came under fire from state television for not singing the country’s national anthem before one match.
Five players, including captain Zahra Ghanbari, slipped away from the team hotel under the cover of darkness to claim sanctuary from Australian officials, the Australian government announced.
At least two more team members applied to stay later in the day, according to local media.
However, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Wednesday that one of them had subsequently changed her mind.
Burke said in parliament on Wednesday that he had since been advised that one of the group “had spoken to some of the team mates that left and changed their mind.”
“She had been advised by her team mates and encouraged to contact the Iranian embassy,” he said.
“As a result of that, it meant the Iranian embassy now knew the location of where everybody was.”
The remaining players have been moved from a safe house to another location, he said.
