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The 22-year-old Frenchman produced a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 shocker Thursday night that left 15,000 fans standing and cheering, and most observers slack-jawed in astonishment. That included Nadal, who had no answer for Tsonga.
“I tried to play little bit slower, I tried to play a little bit faster, I tried to play more inside the court, behind the court,” the Spaniard said. “No chance. Not today. He’s running unbelievable, physically very explosive, everything. What I can say? Nothing bad about his game tonight. I have to find something. I gonna think all the night, no?”
Tsonga hit 17 aces, and 49 winners in all: forehand winners down the line, delicate drop shots, drop-volley winners, and behind-the-back volley winners he couldn’t even see to hit.
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http://frenchballs.loco-web.com/tsonga/page_autoportrait.htm
Jo, passionné de pêche
Wikipedia
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Petsonga (born April 17, 1985) is a French professional tennis player.
Tsonga has a career high ranking of #38, achieved on January 7, 2008. At the 2007 Australian Open, he took the first set off Andy Roddick in a twenty points to eighteen tiebreak. Tsonga has secured victories over former #1 tennis players Carlos Moyà and Lleyton Hewitt, and at the 2008 Australian Open he defeated number 14 seed Mikhail Youzhny, number 9 seed Andy Murray, number 8 seed Richard Gasquet, and number 2 seed Rafael Nadal.
By reaching the 2008 Australian Open final (in a straight sets defeat of the tournament’s second seed, Rafael Nadal), Tsonga became the first unseeded player to reach an ATP Grand Slam final since Marcos Baghdatis (2006 Australian Open).
Born in Le Mans, Tsonga has a French mother, Evelyne, and a Congolese father, Didier Tsonga, who moved to France in the 1970s to play handball.[2] Both of his parents now work as teachers in France. Tsonga also has an older sister, Sasha, and a younger brother, Enzo, who is a part of the French junior basketball program. [3]
As a child, he and fellow tennis player Gaël Monfils would spend hours trying to develop a serve just like Andy Roddick’s. Players on the ATP circuit have nicknamed Tsonga “the Muhammad Ali of Tennis” due to his striking resemblance to Muhammad Ali, who is one of his heroes.[4] Tsonga is coached by compatriot Eric Winogradsky.
Meet Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, tennis’s next big thing
Stephanie Myles , Canwest News Service; Montreal Gazette
Published: Friday, January 25, 2008
MELBOURNE, Australia – He was faster.
He hit harder.
He won the physical battle against perhaps the most physical player in the game.
He won the mental battle against one of the most impenetrable psyches in the game.
And he had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the very first point.
Who is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga? And how in the world was he able to bully the world’s No. 2 ranked men’s tennis player, Rafael Nadal, into submission so thoroughly and comprehensively in the semifinals of the Australian Open?
The 22-year-old Frenchman produced a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 shocker Thursday night that left 15,000 fans standing and cheering, and most observers slack-jawed in astonishment.
That included Nadal, who had no answer for Tsonga.
“I tried to play little bit slower, I tried to play a little bit faster, I tried to play more inside the court, behind the court,” the Spaniard said. “No chance. Not today. He’s running unbelievable, physically very explosive, everything. What I can say? Nothing bad about his game tonight. I have to find something. I gonna think all the night, no?”
Tsonga hit 17 aces, and 49 winners in all: forehand winners down the line, delicate drop shots, drop-volley winners, and behind-the-back volley winners he couldn’t even see to hit.
Granted, Nadal wasn’t on a clay court, where he’s most at home, and Tsonga had beaten very good players – seeded players Richard Gasquet of France, Andy Murray of Britain and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia among them – to reach this point.
But who saw this coming? Not Nadal, who thought he had been playing well enough to win the tournament.
“Today I played the match that everyone dreams of all their life,” said Tsonga, who even dwarfed Nadal’s considerable presence in the interview room in his tight, fitted T-shirt, bulging biceps, huge right forearm, million-dollar smile and diamond stud earrings.
His resemblance to a young Muhammad Ali hasn’t gone unnoticed. If anyone knows anything about him, that’s likely it.
Tsonga’s English is still a work in progress. But in French, his sense of humour, confidence and clear enjoyment of his moment comes through.
“The moment when you feel you just can’t miss, you put more energy into the ball, more power. And I still wasn’t making mistakes, so I hit even harder,” he said. “I sort of sensed he was thinking,”Who is this guy who’s sending me all this stuff from everywhere on the court?
“Tonight I really felt untouchable,” he said.
A year ago, after two seasons of injury woes including a herniated disc, Tsonga was ranked No. 212 in the world and came into the Australian Open as a wild card, thanks to a reciprocal agreement between the French and Australian federations. He lost in the first round to Andy Roddick of the U.S., but not without taking the first set in a 20-18 tiebreak.
He’s at a career-high No. 38 at the moment, which will rise significantly regardless of the result of Sunday’s final.
In 2003, Tsonga was the No. 2-ranked junior after winning the U.S. Open junior title, defeating Marcos Baghdatis of Cypress in the final.
The towering Tsonga has been compared to Marat Safin of Russia at his peak: easy, effortless movement for a big man, and that level of talent.
And like Baghdatis, Tsonga has charisma. He had the crowd on his side from the first serve Thursday night, which is telling. Nadal, after all, is one of the most popular players around.
“I felt there was a lot of energy that pushed me,” Tsonga said. “I felt the crowd. I was really in my bubble, so maybe only when I needed it, I tried to pump them up a little. All I had to do was crook my little finger, and they got carried away.”
Nadal had three break points, all of which came in Tsonga’s first service game of the third set. All were denied.
“I did get nervous. But I said to myself, ‘I’ll just serve three bullets, and we won’t talk about it any more,” Tsonga said.
That’s exactly what he did.
He’s now into his first Grand Slam final.
“He is in the best moment of his career. He’s playing with zero pressure. Everything is going good for him. So when you are playing like this every ball is going to the line. Is not the real level I think,” Nadal said. “Sure, he can play like this, but not every week. It’s impossible, no?”
Tsonga will play the winner of tonight’s other semifinal, between world No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland and No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
“If he play like today, he’d have his chances against both,” Nadal said, “but I think he (is) going to feel the pressure for the final, no?”
So who is Jo-Wilfried Tsonga?
Even his access badge holds no clue. Not only is the photo barely identifiable, from his junior days, his name isn’t even spelled correctly: Jo-Wilfred.
But he’s no longer unknown.
And both he and Nadal will have trouble sleeping tonight: Nadal trying to remember the licence plate of the 18-wheeler that ran over him, and Tsonga trying to figure out a way to keep the magic going, for one more match.
Montreal Gazette
smyles@thegazette.canwest.com
