Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made a successful South American debut at the Argentina Open tennis, easing past local Leonardo Mayer 6-1, 6-2 to advance to the quarter-finals.
The World No. 9 powered through the opening set against the 37th ranked Argentine, breaking twice to take it in just 25 minutes on Wednesday.
The 30-year-old was similarly dominant in the second set, breaking Mayer for 2-1 before racing to 3-1 with a love hold. He secured the double break for 5-2 and closed it out on his second match point just shy of an hour.
The defeat consigned Mayer to his eighth straight loss against opponents within the top 10 rankings, with his lone victory in 25 matches coming against World No. 7 David Ferrer in the 2014 Hamburg final.
Tsonga is looking to reach his first clay court final here. He will next meet Spaniard Nicolas Almagro. Almagro earlier produced a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 result to beat Argentine Federico Delbonis.
