Tsonga withdraws due to injury

  • Last Updated: May 28 2016, 20:55 BST

The French Open suffered another blow when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was forced to pull out during the first set of his match against Ernests Gulbis with a thigh injury.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga leaves the court after withdrawing from his men's third round match against Ernests Gulbis
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga leaves the court after withdrawing from his men's third round match against Ernests Gulbis

  • Related Content

With both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal forced out of the French Open through injury earlier in the tournament, the French number one's withdrawal will be particularly felt by the home fans.

Tsonga was leading 5-2 but took a medical time-out and, on returning to the court, shook hands with Gulbis before walking off in tears.

The sixth seed said: "The problem is my adductor, the same thing I had before the tournament. I came on court feeling really good. The first game of the match I did a slide, and I just felt a pain.

"I continued a little bit, and it was coming more and more painful. I knew it was over, because no chance I can play all match long like this."

The hurt Tsonga felt was tempered by events in Paris on Saturday, where 11 people, including eight children at a birthday party, were hurt in a lightning strike.

Tsonga said: "It's really difficult, but a few times in the past I played on in this pain, tried to win, but after that I was worse, and I was out for a long time.

"The emotions just flow out of me, and I'm very disappointed and very sad, because I did everything I could to try and go as deep as possible in the tournament.

"Today we have had very bad news at the Parc Monceau in Paris, and this means that everything is relative. It's disappointing, it's sad, but it's not the most important thing."

Gulbis reached the semi-finals two years ago but has dropped like a stone since and is now ranked 80th.

He said: "It's very strange. I feel very sorry for Jo, because it's been already the second match (against Gulbis) he had to withdraw. First one was in Wimbledon a couple of years ago.

"There we played three sets. Here unfortunately we played just seven games. It's never nice to win like this."

Gulbis will play 12th seed David Goffin, who came through a five-setter against Nicolas Almagro 6-2 4-6 6-3 4-6 6-2.

Also through are seventh seed Tomas Berdych, who saw off Pablo Cuevas 4-6 6-3 6-2 7-5, and 14th seed Roberto Bautista Agut, a 6-2 6-3 6-3 winner against teenager Borna Coric.