In Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s first match since the French Open semifinals, the French 13th seed had a tough go in the blazing heat, but eventually came out victorious in five sets against a dangerous grass-court player in Gilles Muller of Luxembourg. Tsonga won it 7-6(8), 6-7(3), 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

The Frenchman won a closely contested first set despite Muller saving a handful of set points in the tiebreak. Nevertheless, Tsonga was the better player in the set, hitting 15 aces compared to just two double faults and winning all points on his first serve; remarkable considering he made more than 50 percent of them and effectively played seven service games. Muller unsurprisingly struggled in the return game, hardly causing Tsonga any trouble and committing 18 unforced errors, compared to Tsonga’s two.

Muller is an accomplished serve-and-volleyer suited to play on the grass of Wimbledon. In the second set, he again had little trouble on his serve; but steadily improved his return game, getting several break point opportunities. Though he failed to capitalize on those chances, he went into the second tiebreak of the match with a better chance against Tsonga’s slightly dwindling serve. The Luxembourg native delivered in the end to levels things at one set a piece.

It took 2 hours and 18 minutes of play before Tsonga finally achieved the first break of serve in the match. With break point opportunities continuing to be at a premium, the 30-year-old Frenchman was on hand to finish the job and win the third set 6-4. Tsonga played a lot like he did in the first set, winning 93 percent of points on his first serve and committing just six unforced errors.

At this point, both players clearly looked in distress under the scorching weather; more so with Tsonga.  Matters were made worse in the fourth set for the Frenchman when, at deuce and 1-3 down, the chair umpire wrongly overruled a good shot by Tsonga after Muller raised his hand to challenge it; meaning the point was replayed instead of Muller automatically losing it because of stopping the point to challenge the call. Missing his chance to break back, Tsonga eventually lost the set by the sole break of serve, 3-6.

The charismatic Frenchman came into the final set with a chip on his shoulder. He looked raring to go from the start and broke Muller’s serve early. He never looked back since, taking the fifth set 6-2. He dominated every statistic, most notably committing just one unforced error.

Tsonga came out well-deserved winner in the end, but it was curious the way Muller approached this match. The 32-year-old too often decided to play from the back of the court, instead of using the ‘chip and charge’ tactic, which seemed to work well the few times he decided to do it.

Tsonga will now face Albert Ramos-Vinolas of Spain in the second round. Ramos-Vinolas beat Dennis Istomin of Uzbekistan in his first round match. Istomin, who won his first ATP title in Nottingham last week, had to retire from the match in the third set due to injury.