Marseille Open: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga clinches title to surge into top 10 in ATP rankings

Marseille: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga claimed a second title in as many weeks and surged into the world top 10 after beating fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the final of the ATP Marseille Open on Sunday. Second seed Tsonga, currently 11th in the ATP rankings, notched up a 6-4, 6-4 win over fourth seed Pouille to become Marseille champion for a third time.

Tsonga, 31, won in Rotterdam last week for a first title since September 2015 and the Marseille victory was his 14th career ATP title.

This is the first time that Tsonga has won back-to-back ATP titles. Victory also marks a real return to form for the 2016 US Open quarter-finalist.

“I played great tennis all week, like last week,” said the in-form Tsonga.

“I was never in too much danger. I served very well each time it was close.”

In the semi-final, Tsonga had beaten Australia’s defending champion Nick Kyrgios 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-4.

Tsonga had lost to Grigor Dimitrov in the final at Sofia a couple of weeks ago, but has since clinched two titles. Remarkably, he won his title at the Rotterdam World Tennis tournament last week despite his coach Thierry Ascion missing the final due to personal commitments.

The title at Rotterdam was the Frenchman’s first ATP 500 series title since Vienna in 2011 when he beat Juan Martin del Potro.