Tsonga pips Raonic in 'longest tennis match in Olympic history'

London - French professional tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga created an Olympic record for the longest tennis match in Games history, while defeating Milos Raonic to reach the third round of the singles event.
 
The Frenchman beat the Canadian 6-3 3-6 25-23 after three hours and 56 minutes, following a third and final set lasting 48 games, and set an Olympic record.
 
Tsonga wasted three match points before winning the epic deciding set over Raonic.
 
Meanwhile, Serbia's Novak Djokovic thrashed Andy Roddick of the United States 6-2 6-1 to reach round three in the London 2012 Olympics.
 
"I served extremely well during these opening two matches and [against Roddick] everything was working perfectly well," the BBC quoted Djokovic, as saying.
 
"I was neutralising his serve by getting a lot of returns back in the court and serving a lot of aces. Getting a lot of free points on serve is something I really want to have in my game," he added.
 
Tennis ace Venus Williams also moved closer to a fourth Olympic gold as she reached the third round with a 6-1 6-3 win over Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, the report said.