Tsonga wins his first round match at Australian Open

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. PHOTO/File

Crowd favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga overcame a couple of stutters in his first-round match at the Australian Open before beating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Tuesday.

The sixth-seeded Tsonga dropped the second set and then seemed to have regained control of an entertaining match on Margaret Court Arena.

He had two match points at 5-2 in the fourth set, but Istomin saved both and broke back in the next game.

Tsonga finally closed out the win on his third match point.

The Frenchman lost the 2008 Australian Open final to Novak Djokovic for his best Grand Slam result.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.