French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hits a backhand during his first round match against his compatriot Nicolas Mahut at the ATP Masters Series tennis tournament in Hamburg, Germany yesterday. Tsonga won in three sets 0-6, 7-6 and 6-2. - AP

HAMBURG, Germany (AP):

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made some history for himself yesterday in the first round of the Hamburg Masters.

The Australian Open runner-up rallied to beat Nicolas Mahut 0-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 for his first win after coming back from a knee injury - and his first on the tour on clay.

Tsonga missed a month because of the right-knee injury and lost in the first round of the Rome Masters last week to Gilles Simon. Tsonga is seeded 14th at the Hamburg event, a major clay-court warm-up for the French Open.

A serve-and-volley player, Tsonga rarely plays on clay and had never won a match on the slow surface in the main draw.

"I was a little lost at the beginning. In Rome, I didn't event know what to do with the ball," Tsonga said. "I think I can play on this surface. I need to play more matches and gain more experience."

Also, 10th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny lost to Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-2, 12th-seeded Juan Monaco advanced when Filippo Volandri retired with a knee injury with Monaco leading 6-1, 4-0, Nicolas Kiefer upset 16th-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-4, and No. 15 Andy Murray topped Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 6-1.

Unpredictable player

"He's a tough guy to play, very unpredictable," Murray said. "I tried to stay on top and I was happy with the way I mixed it up. Overall, I played a very good match."

Top-ranked Roger Federer and No. 2 Rafael Nadal had time to practice yesterday since the top eight seeded players have first-round byes.

Both are coming off losses at the Rome Masters. Nadal lost for only the second time in his last 105 matches on clay, falling to Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-1 in the second round. Federer lost to Radek Stepanek 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) in the quarter-finals. With both of them out, the Rome title went to Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic.

"I am playing the tennis my life," the third-ranked Djokovic said Monday. "I feel ready for the upcoming challenges. I am playing better and better on clay."

Nadal at least had the excuse of an open blister on his foot.

"It's much better. Not perfect, but for sure better," Nadal said yesterday.

Bloody injury

Nadal had blood drained from the right-foot blister twice in Rome with a syringe, and both times chewed on a towel to stop himself from screaming in pain in the locker room, his spokesman Benito Perez-Barbadillo said yesterday.

Nadal has complained that the European clay-court season has been crammed together this year without a week off between any of the tournaments.

"After Rome, I had to come here," said Nadal, conceding that he might have skipped Hamburg if he had lasted until the final in Rome.

"Four straight weeks on clay, that is too much," said Nadal, who won the tournaments in Monte Carlo and Barcelona before going to Rome.

Nadal may be the dominant player on clay but it's Federer who rules in Hamburg. Nadal has played in Hamburg only twice before, and lost last year's final to Federer, who ended Nadal's 81-match winning streak on clay.

Federer has won the Hamburg event four times and his first victory came in 2002, when he broke into the top 10.