From the famous “gang of four”, the golden generation of tennis that he embodied with Richard Gasquet, Gaël Monfils and Gilles Simon, he was the last to emerge. Not for lack of talent or ambition, but because he was held back in his early years by repeated physical glitches. A herniated disc at the end of 2004, then abdominal and right shoulder problems the following two seasons. To the point of wondering if it was all worth it. Without the support of his family and that of his coach at the time, Eric Winogradsky, Tsonga might have thrown in the towel long before this spring of 2022. It would have been a shame.
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At the start of 2007, at almost 22 years old, the Manceau did not even appear in the top 200 of the ATP ranking. Fortunately, social networks did not exist or were only babbling, otherwise the populist vox would not have failed to indicate to him that as a good-for-nothing unable to put one foot in front of the other , it was already time for him to change jobs.
There is nothing more frustrating for a gamer than not being able to express themselves. This is probably even more true at the start of a career, when you sense its potential. Once the alerts of his sleeping body, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was able to show what he had in his stomach and in his arm. And if the next muscle or ligament alert was never far away, for a good decade he was able to recite his tennis.
Its emergence was therefore anything but gradual but, on the contrary, of a rare suddenness. Revelation of the year 2007 for the ATP, the season of his entry into the Top 100, he then broke the house in Melbourne in 2008 by reaching the final, with in passing this almost supernatural victory in half against Rafael Nadal. In terms of pure results, it was the peak of his Grand Slam career.
If there is a misdeal, it resides here, just like a form of misunderstanding on the part of the general public, who sometimes judged the player too harshly, who nevertheless improved. His backhand never became Gasquet’s, his service return never reached a tenth of the quality of a Djokovic’s, but it’s not because he never played in a final again. major that he backed off or even stood still. “I’m stronger and more complete today than when I made my final in Melbourne“, he confided in 2012 to Eurosport. He was right.
So, it will be objected, why has he never repeated his performance? Why did the Australian final never father a little sister? Because the world has changed. Roger Federer remained Roger Federer. But Rafael Nadal, in January 2008, was still only a winner of Roland-Garros. Novak Djokovic then proved to be at least as indecent as the Swiss and the Spaniard in his domination, transforming an infernal duo into a hegemonic trio. The Big 3 only left a few bread croutons and crumbs. Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka provided the croutons, Juan Martin Del Potro and Marin Cilic provided the crumbs. The cases of Dominic Thiem and Daniil Medvedev are (a little) different.
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It’s true, nothing prevented Tsonga from achieving a “one shot” at the Cilic US Open 2014 version. He didn’t know how to do it and that will remain his limit. But there is no coincidence. If the forces of the French were formidable, its limits were handicapping, in any case on such heights. Yes, we can regret that Wawrinka, so long behind him on split times, then left him there. In reality, the Vaudois was a more complete player than JWT has ever been, even if it took him some time to convince himself of that.
Then carelessness only lasts for a while. The almost absurd release that was his during the Australian Open 2008, it never existed and it will never exist over the duration of a career. There were no expectations or outside pressure on Tsonga when he started this tournament. The fullness of his half against Nadal was almost too big to be true.
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But if you can’t live that for a lifetime, Tsonga will have lived it, at least. Not everyone can say the same. Still, his victory at Wimbledon against Federer in 2011, although less spectacular, probably has even more value. Because, this time, everything was more structured, the adversary was in his garden and, above all, well able to understand the nature of the danger in front.
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The balance sheet of this tricolor generation is imperfect, frustrating in certain respects, but without Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, it would have much less relief. He will have been the number one in French men’s tennis of his time, and by far. He is the only one of the gang of four to have played in a major final. In total, he appeared six times in the last four. That’s more than Monfils, Gasquet and Simon combined. It will also be recalled that he is one of the three players (along with Wawrinka and Berdych) to have beaten the “Big Four” in a Grand Slam. He was the best ranked (5th). He won two Masters 1000, including one by beating successively Djokovic, Murray and Federer. The other three? Zero title. He won 18 tournaments. More, there too, than all the others. He was a finalist in the Masters.
Over the entire Open era, it is even legitimate to make him the runner-up to Yannick Noah, untouchable because the only Grand Slam winner, the only one to have reached the world podium, and above all alone in his own category in terms of of charisma, of magnetism. But for various reasons (accomplishments, consistency, great victories), he probably stands above all the others, from Pioline to Grosjean, from Leconte to Clément, and so on.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also had ambition. He even allowed himself to display it, many felt authorized to reproach him for it. He did not fully satisfy it. It’s a shame, but it’s not shameful. If there are limits to his career, and if we have the right to point them out, we also have a duty to highlight his accomplishments. On the scale of French tennis, they are exceptional. To that of world tennis, they are not insignificant.
Jo-Wilfred Tsonga at the Australian Open.
Credit: Getty Images
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