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London - Top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's preparations for Wimbledon were curtailed at the Eastbourne warm-up tournament when he lost 6-2, 6-3 to Czech Radek Stepanek in their second round match on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old Frenchman, beaten by Andy Murray in the rain-delayed final of the Queen's tournament on Monday and seeded 12th for Wimbledon next week, looked out of sorts as he lost in just over an hour in his third match in three days.
After his exploits in west London, which included a victory over world No 1 Rafael Nadal, he beat Russian Denis Istomin 6-2, 7-5 in the opening round on Tuesday but ran out of steam and lost concentration against the 32-year-old Czech, a Wimbledon quarter-finalist five years ago.
Stepanek was always in control and moved almost effortlessly into the quarter-finals where he will meet either Kei Nishikori of Japan or Rainer Schuettler of Germany, whose match was suspended because of rain with the Japanese player leading 3-2 in the opening set.
