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An intriguing encounter between two relatively lackluster competitors in 2014 is scheduled to take place in the third round of the French Open, as local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz meet for the second time on the professional tour. Their only other meeting took place in Rome last season, and saw Janowicz produce a big upset against the Frenchman and earn the straight sets victory. Check out the Tsonga vs Janowicz Head to Head.

2013 semi-finalst Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the third round in Paris with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win against Jurgen Melzer. It was a comfortable victory in a match that featured very little turbulence for the Frenchman. He will now face an opponent he is yet to defeat on the professional tour, but who has also been unable to string together back-to-back wins until this week in Paris. “Jerzy is a difficult player,” said Tsonga.

“You never know exactly what to expect on court. He’s rather unpredictable. He’s very tall, he strikes hard. So you have to find a way to neutralise him and it’s not always that easy.” Polish No. 1 Jerzy Janowicz arrived at the third round in Paris with a 7-6(4), 7-6(4), 6-4 win over Jarkko Nieminen.

The world No. 23 had not strung together back-to-back wins since Rotterdam in February, but appears to be in much better form this week in Paris. Janowicz reached this very stage of the tournament last season, when he lost to Stan Wawrinka in four sets.

Janowicz already holds a victory against Tsonga in their only other encounter on the professional tour. It was a straight sets victory that took place in the second round of the Rome Masters last season, and he will be looking to replicate that win on Friday afternoon in Paris. Whether he is capable of achieving the same feat this time around is an entirely different question, as Janowicz has not had a fantastic start to his 2014 relative to this time last year. Tsonga has not looked fantastic either, which is why this is a contest that could be considered a toss-up.

Prediction: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Five Sets