Cape Town - Ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga cruised past Florian Mayer of Germany and into the second round of the Shanghai Masters on Monday.
The Frenchman needed 72 minutes to defeat Mayer 6-3, 6-2 to set-up a clash with Serbian Janko Tipsarevic next.
Tsonga, who has recovered from recent knee surgery, faced two break points in the opening game of the match before holding serve. Things then went with serve until the eighth game where Mayer dropped his serve only for Tsonga to hold his and claim the opening set on his second set point.
The second set was all Tsonga, who broke Mayer's serve in the third and fifth games.
But, when serving for the match at 5-2 up, Tsonga was made to battle for the match, facing two break points while his opponent saved four match-points. Mayer, however, could not stop the 31-year-old Tsonga claiming the set and match on his fifth match-point.
In some other first-round action, the young guns all made winning starts with 19-year-old Alexander Zverev, 21-year-old Kyle Edmund and 18-year-old Taylor Fritz all winning at the Qizhong Tennis Center.
Zverev beat big-serving American John Isner 6-4, 6-2 in 69 minutes and Fritz of the US got past French world number 53 Stephane Robert 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-3 and will meet Aussie Bernard Tomic or 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round.
British youngster Edmund defeated Argentine Federico Delbonis 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 and will next play third seed Stan Wawrinka, while Steve Johnson of the US beat Slovakia's Martin Klizan 6-4, 6-3 and will face second seed Andy Murray next.
Canadian Vasek Pospisil got past Croat Ivo Karlovic 7-6(5), 6-4 in 80 minutes and Mischa Zverev of Germany beat China's Zhang Ze 6-1, 6-2.
Viktor Troicki of Serbia cruised past Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4 and Frenchman Benoit Paire needed three sets to beat Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.