Ten years ago today, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won his second Masters 1000 has Torontoachieving what is undoubtedly one of the greatest feats in tennis history: beating three members of the Big 4 in a single tournament. He had started by beating his compatriots Édouard Roger-VasselinThen Jérémy Chardyboth in two sets. Then the challenge intensified and Tsonga had created a sensation by beating the number 1 seed, Novak Djokovicin two sets. A clear victory for Jo, 6-2, 6-2. The rest was just as legendary, since he first beat Andy Murray en three sets in the quarter-finals, the only set he would lose during the tournament, before going on to inflict two sets on Grigor Dimitrov, then to Roger Federer in the final. A legendary journey, which many consider one of the most impressive to win a Masters 1000. Indeed, beating 3 members of the Big 4 and 4 top 10 is not given to everyone.
Tsonga �’�, in Dip Talk: “You see your board with 3 guys from the Big 4, you say to yourself: ‘If I get out of there alive, because that’s the word, it’s a miracle’. I’m pissing blood at the end.” 😳
On 08.08.2014, Jo won the Toronto M1000 by beating Djokovic, Murray, Dimitrov and Federer! pic.twitter.com/mXG4SQVFfQ
— We Are Tennis France (@WeAreTennisFR) August 10, 2024
“You say to yourself if I get out of here alive, it’s a miracle.”
In an interview given to Eurosportthe Frenchman returned to this title and in particular to the difficulty of facing players from the Big Four: “When you see that in your table, you’re going to have one in the 1/8th, one in the 1/4, one in the 1/2 and one in the final, you say to yourself ‘if I get out of here alive, it’s a miracle’. Torontoafter the final, I went to the toilet, it was blood coming out. I called the FFT doctor, he explained to me that, when fatigue is too great, we break muscle fibers and the blood is evacuated through urine.” For now, Tsonga is still the last Frenchman to have won a Masters 1000.
