Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the
Association of Tennis Professionals
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) is the governing body of the men's professional tennis circuits – the ATP Tour, the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Champions Tour. It was formed in September 1972 by Donald Dell, Jack Kramer, an ...
(ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on the
ATP Tour
The ATP Tour is a worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals. The second-tier tour is the ATP Challenger Tour and the third-tier is the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour. The equivalent women's organis ...
, including two
Masters 1000
The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...
titles.In his early career, Tsonga won the
2003 US Open junior singles title and was the
ATP Newcomer of the Year
This is a list of all the awards given by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to players and others of particular distinction during a given season.
Player & Team of the Year
The ATP Player and Team of the Year awards are presently give ...
for
2007
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. He rose to fame by reaching the
2008 Australian Open
The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 throug ...
final as an unseeded player, defeating four seeded players (including world No. 2
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
) en route. He followed by winning his first Masters title at the
2008 Paris Masters
The 2008 Paris Masters (also known as the '' BNP Paribas Masters'' for sponsorship reasons) was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 36th edition of the Paris Masters, and was part of the ATP Masters Series of the ...
, and reached the final of the
2011 ATP Finals. At the
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...
, Tsonga won the silver medal in men's doubles partnering
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
. He claimed his second Masters title at the
2014 Canadian Open, defeating four top-ten players en route. Tsonga also reached the final of the
2011 Paris Masters and the
2015 Shanghai Masters. In doubles, he won the
2009 Shanghai Masters doubles title partnering
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
. In
2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
, Tsonga helped
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
to its first Davis Cup win in 16 years, after being runner-up in 2014. He retired from the sport at the
2022 French Open
The 2022 French Open was a Grand Slam tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was held at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 22 May to 5 June 2022, comprising singles, doubles and mixed doubles play. Junior and wheelchair ...
.Tsonga reached the quarterfinal stage of all four majors. His best performances at the majors since 2008 were semifinal appearances at the
2010 Australian Open, the
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...
and
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
French Open and at
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
in
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
and
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...
. Tsonga is one of only three players (the others being
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
and
Stan Wawrinka
Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His career highlight ...
) to have major wins against each of the
Big Four. He is a member of the
Tennis Club de Paris
Tennis Club de Paris (Tennis Club of Paris), also known as the TCP, is a tennis club founded in 1895 in Paris.
History
1895 to 1930
In 1895, a few sportsmen, including Armand Masson and Paul Lecaron, had the idea of creating a tennis club tha ...
.
Early and personal life
Tsonga was born on 17 April 1985 in Le Mans to a
Congolese father, Didier Tsonga, a handball player and a
French mother, Évelyne Tsonga. His father moved to France during the 1970s to fulfill his dreams of becoming a handball great, where he eventually met Évelyne and they married. Tsonga is nicknamed Ali because of his facial resemblance to boxing legend
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
.
Tsonga has a younger brother (Enzo) who, much like Jo, has been inspired to play sports and is part of the French basketball program (junior). He also has an elder sister (Sasha) who is less involved with sporting ventures. His footballing cousin is
Maël Lépicier who plays for
Congo. Tsonga and
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
developed a good friendship from a young age, when they enjoyed mimicking all the tennis greats of the past.
Tsonga had a career-high ITF junior singles ranking of world No. 2, attained on 13 October 2003. He won the
2003 US Open boys' singles title. He reached four other singles semifinals of junior Grand Slam events.
Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis ( el, Μάρκος Παγδατής, ar, ماركوس بغداتيس; ; born 17 June 1985) is a Cypriot former professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimble ...
was a major rival of Tsonga on the junior tour.
Tsonga started dating Noura El Shwekh (she is of Swiss nationality) from late 2014. She frequently accompanied him on the ATP tour while they were dating. In November 2016, Tsonga announced that the couple were expecting their first child. Their first child, a boy named Sugar, was born on 17 March 2017. Tsonga and El Shwekh married on 21 July 2018 in a ceremony held at the Château de Bagnols
(fr), which was constructed in the 13th century and located in the department of
Rhône
The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
. Pictures of the couple's marriage ceremony were posted on Tsonga's Twitter account on the afternoon of Monday, 23 July 2018 with the caption, "We are family".
Tennis career
2003-2006: Junior US Open title and turning pro
Tsonga played his first junior match in July 2000 at the age of 15 at a grade 2 tournament in the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. He had a very successful junior career; he won the
US Open boys' singles title in
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
by defeating
Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis ( el, Μάρκος Παγδατής, ar, ماركوس بغداتيس; ; born 17 June 1985) is a Cypriot former professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimble ...
in the final and he was a losing boys' singles semifinalist in the other three
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
events in the same year. Tsonga reached his career-high boys' singles ranking of world no. 2 on 13 October 2003.
Junior Grand Slam results – Singles:
Australian Open: SF (2002,
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
)
French Open: SF (
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
)
Wimbledon: SF (
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
)
US Open: W (
2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
)
Tsonga turned pro in 2004. He won three singles qualifying matches at the
2004 China Open held in September of that year to reach the singles main draw of an ATP Tour tournament for the first time in his career; in the main draw, he upset former French Open singles champion, former No. 1 and the top seed
Carlos Moyá
Carlos Moyá Llompart (; born 27 August 1976) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. He was the French Open singles champion in 1998 and was the singles runner-up at the 1997 Australian Open. In 2004, he was part of his country's suc ...
in the first round, before losing to
Lee Hyung-taik
Lee Hyung-taik ( ko, 이형택, born 3 January 1976) is a former professional tennis player from South Korea. He won one singles title and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 36, in August 2007.
Personal life
Lee was born in a p ...
in the second round.
Tsonga suffered a string of injuries beginning late in 2004, with a herniated disc that caused him to be out of action until March 2005. Then came two right shoulder injuries later in 2005, back and abdominal ailments from October 2005 to February 2006, and the recurrence of an abdominal injury at the end of 2006. In all, he played (only the singles events of) just eight ATP Tour tournaments from August 2004 to November 2006.
2007: Top 50, first doubles title
In January 2007, then ranked No. 212 in the world, Tsonga received a wild card entry into the
2007 Australian Open, where in only his second senior
Grand Slam tournament match, he met sixth seed
Andy Roddick
Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open ...
for the second time in his career. What followed was the longest tiebreak in Australian Open history in the first set, which he went on to win (20–18). Tsonga forced a tiebreak in the second set, as well. However, he went on to lose the match in four sets. He was just 21 at the time.
In 2007, Tsonga won four
Challenger
Challenger, Challengers, or The Challengers may refer to:
Entertainment
Comics and manga
* Challenger (character), comic book character
* ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga
Film and TV
* ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...
titles in
Tallahassee
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...
, Mexico City,
Lanzarote
Lanzarote (, , ) is a Spanish island, the easternmost of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean. It is located approximately off the north coast of Africa and from the Iberian Peninsula. Covering , Lanzarote is the fourth-largest of the i ...
, and
Surbiton
Surbiton is a suburban neighbourhood in South West London, within the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames (RBK). It is next to the River Thames, southwest of Charing Cross. Surbiton was in the historic county of Surrey and since 1965 it has ...
. Tsonga qualified for the 2007
Queen's Club Championships
The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) T ...
, while at the same time playing in the Surbiton Challenger, which he won. Between the two events, he won five matches during the course of two days. In the second round of the Queen's main draw, he met the sixth seed and defending champion, former No. 1
Lleyton Hewitt
Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He is the most recent Australian man to win a major singles title, with two at the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon Championships. In November 200 ...
, ranked No. 16 in the
ATP rankings. Tsonga won the match after two tiebreaks to seal his most prominent victory since his triumph in ATP debut over former No. 1
Carlos Moyà
Carlos may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Carlos, Alberta, a locality
;United States
* Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County
* Carlos, Minnesota, a small city
* Carlos, West Virginia
;Elsewhere ...
, then ranked No. 6 in the world, at Beijing in 2004. Tsonga went on to lose to promising Croatian youngster
Marin Čilić
Marin Čilić (; born 28 September 1988) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Čilić has won 20 ATP Tour singles titles, including a major at the 2014 US Open. He was also runner-up at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and the 2018 Austral ...
in the following round.
At
Wimbledon 2007
The 2007 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 121st edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fro ...
, where Tsonga was again awarded a wildcard entry, he reached the fourth round (his first time past round one of a Grand Slam), defeating countryman
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
,
Nicolás Lapentti
Nicolás Alexander Lapentti Gómez (; born 13 August 1976) is a former professional tennis player from Ecuador. His brothers, Giovanni Lapentti, Giovanni and Leonardo, uncle Andrés Gómez, Andrés, and cousins Roberto Quiroz, Roberto and Emil ...
, and
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
. His run was halted by his countryman and friend, 12th seed
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
, in straight sets. He did not beat a seeded player in his progress to the fourth round (
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
, the potential seed he would have faced, had dropped out). The win brought his ranking up from No. 110 to No. 74, his first time inside the top 75.
Then, at the
2007 US Open, Tsonga defeated
Óscar Hernández before beating
Tim Henman
Timothy Henry Henman (born 6 September 1974) is a British former professional tennis player. Henman played a serve-and-volley style of tennis. He was the first British man to reach the singles semifinals of Wimbledon since Roger Taylor in the ...
in what proved to be Henman's last Major. He then lost to
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
in three sets.
The
2007 Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon tournament started strongly for Tsonga. Tsonga beat
Vince Spadea
Vincent Spadea (born July 19, 1974) is a former professional tennis player from the United States.
He reached a career high tenth position in the ATP Champions Race in April 2003, as well as a career-high 18th ATP ranking in February 2005. He h ...
,
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
, and
Olivier Rochus
Olivier Rochus (; born 18 January 1981) is a retired Belgian tennis player. He is the younger brother of Christophe Rochus, also a former top-40 tennis player.
Rochus won two singles titles in his career and in 2004 French Open – Men's double ...
, before losing to compatriot
Sébastien Grosjean
Sébastien René Grosjean (; born 29 May 1978) is a French former professional tennis player. Grosjean reached the semifinals at the 2001 Australian and French Opens, and at Wimbledon in 2003 and 2004. He finished eight consecutive seasons rank ...
. He partnered Grosjean, however, in men's doubles, where the team was awarded a wildcard. They beat top seeds
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
and
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
,
Fabrice Santoro
Fabrice Vetea Santoro (born 9 December 1972) is a French retired tennis player. Successful in both singles and doubles, he had an unusually long professional career, with many of his accomplishments coming toward the end of his career, and he is ...
and
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
, and then third seeds
Arnaud Clément
Arnaud Clément (; born 17 December 1977) is a French former professional tennis player and Davis Cup captain. Clément reached the final of the 2001 Australian Open and achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 10 in April of that year. Par ...
and
Nicolas Mahut
Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut (; born 21 January 1982) is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles.
He is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at the ...
in the semifinals. Tsonga won his first doubles title, and Grosjean won his first doubles title in three years by defeating
Łukasz Kubot
Łukasz Kubot (; born 16 May 1982) is a Polish professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles.
He is a two-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2014 Australian Open with Robert Lindstedt, as well as the 2017 Wi ...
and
Lovro Zovko
Lovro Zovko (born 18 March 1981) is a former professional tennis player from Croatia.
Tennis career Juniors
As a junior Zovko reached as high as No. 9 in the world rankings in 1998 (and No. 10 in doubles).
Pro tour
Early in 2000 and 2001, Zov ...
in straight sets.
By the end of the year, Tsonga saw his ranking rise over 150 ranking spots into the top 50. Tsonga began 2007 ranked No. 212, and in early July was in the top 100 at No. 74. In October, Tsonga climbed into the top 50 for the first time in his career, finishing the year ranked No. 43. Tsonga's year-end 169 ranking spots climb was the biggest climb of any player ranked in the top 75.
2008: Maiden Grand Slam final, first Masters title, top 10
![Jo-Wilfried Tsonga](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Jo-Wilfried_Tsonga.jpg)
Starting his
2008 season, Tsonga won a singles match at the
2008 Next Generation Adelaide International
The 2008 Next Generation Adelaide International was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 31st edition of the event known that year as the Next Generation Adelaide International, and was part of the International S ...
. He defeated
Victor Hănescu
Victor Hănescu (born 21 July 1981) is a former Romanian tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world no. 26.
Professional career
Hănescu attained a career-high singles ranking of No. 26 on 6 July 2009. In a Davis Cup match again ...
and
Ernests Gulbis
Ernests Gulbis (, born 30 August 1988, nicknamed "Lord", "The Gull" or "Ernie") is a Latvian professional tennis player. In 2008, Gulbis won his first ATP Tour doubles title at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, teaming with Rainer Schütt ...
before dispatching
Lleyton Hewitt
Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He is the most recent Australian man to win a major singles title, with two at the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon Championships. In November 200 ...
(the top seed). However, he fell in the semifinals to
Jarkko Nieminen
Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...
. In doubles, Tsonga and
Sébastien Grosjean
Sébastien René Grosjean (; born 29 May 1978) is a French former professional tennis player. Grosjean reached the semifinals at the 2001 Australian and French Opens, and at Wimbledon in 2003 and 2004. He finished eight consecutive seasons rank ...
lost to
Florian Mayer
Florian Mayer (; born 5 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player.
Mayer reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 in June 2011. Also in 2011, Mayer won his first ATP title after four previous defeats in ATP fin ...
and
Chris Haggard
Chris Haggard (born 28 April 1971) is a former professional tennis player from South Africa.
After finishing runner-up in the NAIA national men's tennis championship singles draw in 1991 while playing for Auburn University-Montgomery, Hagga ...
in the first round.
Tsonga played doubles in the Sydney
Medibank International
The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, is a professional tennis tournament i ...
with
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
. They scored a major upset in the final over world No. 1 team
Bob and Mike Bryan
The Bryan brothers, identical twin brothers Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, are retired American professional doubles tennis players and the most successful duo of all time. They were born on April 29, 1978, with Mike being the elder by two minutes. ...
in a super-tiebreak.
Tsonga began his
2008 Australian Open
The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 throug ...
campaign with a tough first-round match against ninth seed
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
and pulled off a four-set victory. Tsonga then defeated
Sam Warburg
Sam Warburg (born April 29, 1983) is an American retired tennis player.
College career
Warburg was a 4-time All-American for Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research ...
and
Guillermo García-López
Guillermo () is the Spanish form of the male given name William. The name is also commonly shortened to 'Guille' or, in Latin America, to nickname 'Memo'. People
*Guillermo Amor (born 1967), Spanish football manager and former player
*Guillermo Ar ...
,
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
and
Mikhail Youzhny
Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (born 25 June 1982), nicknamed "Misha" and "Colonel" by his fans, is a Russian retired professional tennis player who was ranked inside the top 10 and was the Russian No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the Assoc ...
to reach the semifinals. In the semifinals, Tsonga delivered a strong performance and shocked second seed
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
in straight sets. He did not face a break point on his serve until the third set, while breaking the Spaniard five times in the match.
The victory earned him a spot in his first
Grand Slam
Grand Slam most often refers to:
* Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves
Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to:
Games and sports
* Grand slam, winning category te ...
final, where he was beaten by No. 3
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
in four sets.
Tsonga was the only player in the tournament to take a set from Djokovic. Following the tournament, he saw his ranking climb to a career-high of No. 18.
Tsonga then competed at the
Indian Wells Masters
The Indian Wells Masters, also known as the Indian Wells Open and BNP Paribas Open is an annual tennis tournament usually held in early- and mid-March at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, United States. The owner is La ...
, where he reached the fourth round, before losing to defending champion
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
in three sets. Following the tournament, Tsonga saw his ATP ranking climb again to a new career high of No. 12.
Tsonga pulled out of the French Open because of a knee problem that lasted for several months. This knee injury made him pull out of the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup, France vs. the United States. He underwent successful knee surgery and participated in the
2008 US Open. He defeated
Santiago Ventura and
Carlos Moyà
Carlos may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Carlos, Alberta, a locality
;United States
* Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County
* Carlos, Minnesota, a small city
* Carlos, West Virginia
;Elsewhere ...
, before falling to No. 5
Tommy Robredo
Tomás Robredo Garcés, known as Tommy Robredo (, ; born 1 May 1982), is a Spanish former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 5, which he reached in August 2006 as a result of winning the Hamburg Masters ea ...
in the third round.
Tsonga entered the
Thailand Open as the second-seeded player. He defeated
Lukáš Dlouhý,
Jürgen Melzer
Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a younger brother, Geral ...
,
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
, and top seed and
2008 Australian Open
The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 throug ...
champion
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
to claim his first career ATP title. At the
Paris Masters
The Paris Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France. It is played indoors at the AccorHotels Arena, in the neighborhood of Bercy.
The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association o ...
, Tsonga overcame Djokovic once again to earn a place in the quarterfinals. He then defeated
Andy Roddick
Andrew Stephen Roddick (born 30 August 1982) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is a major champion, having won the 2003 US Open. Roddick reached four other major finals (Wimbledon in 2004, 2005, and 2009, and the US Open ...
and
James Blake. In the final, Tsonga defeated
David Nalbandian
David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine retired professional tennis player who played on the ATP Tour from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. He reached the highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006. Nalban ...
in a competitive three-set match to capture his first career
ATP Masters Series
The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...
championship. His win allowed him to secure a spot in the year-end
Tennis Masters Cup
The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results th ...
.
In the round-robin portion of the Masters Cup, Tsonga lost to
Nikolay Davydenko
Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( rus, Никола́й Влади́мирович Давыде́нко ; born 2 June 1981) is a Ukrainian-born Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 i ...
and
Juan Martín del Potro
Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...
, and beat
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
, but he did not advance to the semifinals.
2009: First ATP Masters 1000 doubles title
![Tsonga Australian Open 2009 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Tsonga_Australian_Open_2009_1.jpg)
Tsonga started his 2009 season in Australia at the
Brisbane International
The Brisbane International established in 2009 is a professional tennis tournament played on outdoor hardcourts in Brisbane, Queensland in Australia. It is a WTA Premier tournament of the WTA Tour and was part of the ATP World Tour 250 seri ...
tournament. He defeated
Agustín Calleri
Agustín Calleri (, ; born 14 September 1976) is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina. His nickname is ''Gordo'' which means ''Fat'' in Spanish. He is known as a hard-hitter and he prefers playing on clay.
Calleri served as ...
,
Jarkko Nieminen
Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...
, but lost to
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
in the quarterfinals in three sets. Tsonga teamed up with fellow Frenchman
Marc Gicquel
Marc Gicquel (born 30 March 1977) is a former professional male tennis player from France.
Tennis career
Gicquel turned pro in 1999. He made his ATP Tour singles debut at the 2002 Open 13 – Singles, 2002 Open 13 tournament on hard courts in ...
to win the doubles title by defeating
Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player.
His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009.
His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...
and
Mischa Zverev
Mikhail "Mischa" Alexandrovich Zverev (russian: Михаил "Миша" Александрович Зверев, , ; born 22 August 1987) is a German professional tennis player born in Russia. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world ...
in the final. The duo had beaten Travis Parrott and Filip Polasek, Simon Aspelin and Pavel Vizner, and Mario Ancic and Paul-Henri Mathieu en route to the finals.
At the
Medibank International
The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, is a professional tennis tournament i ...
, Tsonga was forced to retire with a back injury before his quarterfinal match against Jarkko Nieminen. He had received a bye in the first round, and had defeated Italy's
Simone Bolelli
Simone Bolelli (; born 8 October 1985) is an Italian professional tennis player. Bolelli is a Grand Slam champion, having won the 2015 Australian Open doubles event with Fabio Fognini, together becoming the first all-Italian men's pair to win a ...
in straight sets to advance to set up the clash with Nieminen.
The
Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...
found Tsonga making it to the quarterfinals, before losing to Spaniard
Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player.
His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009.
His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...
in four sets. His rank went down to No. 14. He next entered the
South African Tennis Open in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
, where he won his first title of the year, and third overall, by defeating
Jérémy Chardy
Jérémy Chardy (; born 12 February 1987) is a French inactive professional tennis player. He has won one ATP Tour singles title, in Stuttgart in 2009. His best Grand Slam performance in singles was reaching the quarterfinals of the 2013 Austra ...
in the finals. After his triumph in South Africa, Tsonga entered the
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
The Rotterdam Open, also known by its sponsored name ABN AMRO Open, and formely known as: ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (1991-2021), is a professional men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is part of the ATP Tour 500 series ...
in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
, where he lost to No. 1
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
in the quarterfinals in three sets.
Tsonga then entered the
Open 13
The Open 13 is an annual men's tennis tournament played in Marseille, France. The tournament is an ATP World Tour 250 series event on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour. It is held for one week in February. The number 13 is the INSEE co ...
in
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
. He defeated
Andrey Golubev
Andrey Golubev ( rus, Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Го́лубев; born July 22, 1987) is a Kazakh professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 33, achieved on 4 October 2010 and his doubles ranking i ...
,
Simone Bolelli
Simone Bolelli (; born 8 October 1985) is an Italian professional tennis player. Bolelli is a Grand Slam champion, having won the 2015 Australian Open doubles event with Fabio Fognini, together becoming the first all-Italian men's pair to win a ...
, and
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
, before notching his fourth straight win over
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
in the semifinals. In his second all-French final of the month, he defeated
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
to win his second tournament in three weeks.
Tsonga was then called up to play the singles matches for
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
against the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
in their
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
first-round clash. Tsonga defeated
Radek Štěpánek
Radek Štěpánek (; born 27 November 1978) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 8 and best doubles ranking was world No. 4. Štěpánek's biggest achievements are reaching two Masters 1000 ...
, but the Czech Republic had an insurmountable 3–1 lead. Tsonga gave France a consolation point by beating
Jan Hernych
Jan Hernych (born 7 July 1979) is a retired professional male tennis player from Czech Republic. Born in Prague, he turned pro in 1998 and achieved his career-high singles ranking of World No. 59 in April 2009. He won one doubles title and w ...
.
At the
BNP Paribas Open in
Indian Wells, California
Indian Wells is a city in Riverside County, California, Riverside County, California, in the Coachella Valley. Incorporated in 1967, it lies in between the cities of Palm Desert and La Quinta, California, La Quinta. As of the 2010 Census, the c ...
, Tsonga made an early exit from the tournament, as he was defeated by the Russian
Igor Andreev
Igor Valeryevich Andreev (russian: link=no, И́горь Вале́рьевич Андре́ев, BGN/PCGN: ''Andreyev'', ISO 9: ''Andreev'', ; born 14 July 1983) is a Russian former professional tennis player. He won three ATP Tour singles ti ...
in the third round. Next up for Tsonga was the
Sony Ericsson Open
The Miami Open (also known as the Miami Masters, and currently branded as the Miami Open presented by Itaú for sponsorship reasons) is a tennis tournament held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is part of the men's ATP Tour Mas ...
in Miami. He defeated
Agustín Calleri
Agustín Calleri (, ; born 14 September 1976) is a retired professional male tennis player from Argentina. His nickname is ''Gordo'' which means ''Fat'' in Spanish. He is known as a hard-hitter and he prefers playing on clay.
Calleri served as ...
,
Robert Kendrick
Robert Bradley Kendrick (born November 15, 1979) is an American retired professional tennis player. He turned professional in 2000. His career-high singles ranking is World No. 69, achieved in July 2009.
Early life
Robert Kendrick was born to T ...
, and
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
, only to lose to
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
in the quarterfinals. After skipping two tournaments, Tsonga made his return at the
Internazionali BNL d'Italia
The Italian Open ( it, Internazionali d'Italia; literally: ''Italy's Internationals''), originally called the Italian International Championships, is a tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy. It is one of the most important clay tennis tournament ...
in Rome, but he lost his first singles match in the clay-court season at the hands of
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
. In doubles, he and partner
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
lost to the Polish pair of
Mariusz Fyrstenberg
Mariusz Stanisław Fyrstenberg (born 8 July 1980) is a retired left-handed Polish tennis player who was a doubles specialist.
Fyrstenberg primarily partnered Marcin Matkowski. The pair won the Madrid Open twice, in addition to reaching the fina ...
and
Marcin Matkowski
Marcin Matkowski (; born 15 January 1981) is a Polish former professional tennis player whose speciality is in doubles. He played college tennis at UCLA, where Jean-Julien Rojer was one of his teammates. Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg won the ...
in the second round.
Tsonga then entered the
Madrid Masters, but lost in round two. Afterwards, he received the 2008 ATP Most Improved Player of the Year award.
Tsonga then represented France at
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, Germany in the
ARAG World Team Cup. He won the first tie against Sweden's
Andreas Vinciguerra
Andreas Vinciguerra (; born 19 February 1981) is a former tennis player from Sweden, who turned professional in 1998. He won 1 singles title in Copenhagen; reached the semi-finals of the 2001 Rome Masters and 2001 Paris Masters; and attained a ...
, but lost in doubles. Tsonga was defeated by German
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber (; born 16 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player. The right-hander won eight singles and seven doubles titles on the ATP World Tour and made the quarterfinals at the 2012 Wimbledon Cha ...
, but then beat American
Robby Ginepri
Robert Louis Ginepri ( ; born October 7, 1982) is a retired American professional tennis player. He won three ATP singles titles in his career and achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 15 in December 2005. Ginepri's best Grand Slam result ...
. However, France lost three successive ties during the week
Tsonga then entered the
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
. He recorded his first-ever match win at the tournament by defeating
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
in the first round. He then had wins over
Juan Mónaco
Juan Mónaco (; born 29 March 1984), nicknamed "Pico", is an Argentine former tennis player. He won nine singles titles, reached the semifinals of the 2010 Shanghai Masters and the 2012 Miami Masters, and achieved a career-high singles ranking ...
and
Christophe Rochus
Christophe Rochus (born 15 December 1978) is a retired professional male tennis player from Belgium.
Rochus is the older brother of Olivier Rochus. He reached the semi-finals of the Hamburg Masters in 2005 and was runner-up in two ATP tournamen ...
, before his fine run ended at the hands of fifth seed
Juan Martín del Potro
Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...
. Next up was the
Gerry Weber Open
The Halle Open is a men's tennis tournament held in Halle, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Held since 1993, the event is played on four outdoor grass courts and is a part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the ATP Tour schedule.
Between 1993 and 2018 ...
, Tsonga suffered a straight-set defeat against German
Tommy Haas
Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...
in the second round. However, In doubles, Tsonga was paired with his French compatriot
Marc Gicquel
Marc Gicquel (born 30 March 1977) is a former professional male tennis player from France.
Tennis career
Gicquel turned pro in 1999. He made his ATP Tour singles debut at the 2002 Open 13 – Singles, 2002 Open 13 tournament on hard courts in ...
, but they were also defeated in round two.
Tsonga then entered
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
. He survived a tough four-set against
Andrey Golubev
Andrey Golubev ( rus, Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Го́лубев; born July 22, 1987) is a Kazakh professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 33, achieved on 4 October 2010 and his doubles ranking i ...
and received a walkover from
Simone Bolelli
Simone Bolelli (; born 8 October 1985) is an Italian professional tennis player. Bolelli is a Grand Slam champion, having won the 2015 Australian Open doubles event with Fabio Fognini, together becoming the first all-Italian men's pair to win a ...
, before losing to
Ivo Karlović
Ivo Karlović (; born 28 February 1979) is a former Croatian professional tennis player. His height of 211 cm (6 ft 11 in) makes him the joint tallest ranked tennis player in history, along with Reilly Opelka. He has won eight ATP sin ...
of Croatia. At the
Legg Mason Tennis Classic
The Washington Open (known as the Citigroup, Citi Open for sponsorship reasons) is an annual hardcourt tennis tournament played at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. The Washington Open is part of the ...
in Washington, D.C, Tsonga lost to the American
John Isner
John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Considered one of the best servers e ...
in the second round. Tsonga made his debut at the
Rogers Cup
The Canadian Open (french: Tournoi de tennis du Canada), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. T ...
in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...
, Quebec, Canada. He defeated
Rainer Schüttler
Rainer Schüttler (; born 25 April 1976) is a German former professional tennis player. Schüttler was the runner-up at the 2003 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. He won an Olympic silver medal in double ...
and
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
. In the quarterfinals, he overcame No. 1
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
, coming back from an injury timeout after winning the first set by a dive-volley, as well as being 1–5 down in the third set. He advanced to the semifinals, where he lost to
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
in straight sets.
At the
Western & Southern Financial Group Masters in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, Tsonga made an early exit from the singles category, unexpectedly losing to No. 124
Chris Guccione Chris Guccione may refer to:
* Chris Guccione (tennis) (born 1985), Australian tennis player
* Chris Guccione (umpire)
Christopher Gene Guccione (born June 24, 1974) is an American umpire in Major League Baseball. He wears number 68.
Umpiring ca ...
of Australia. In doubles, Tsonga and
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
lost to
Mahesh Bhupathi
Mahesh Shrinivas Bhupathi (born 7 June 1974) is an Indian former doubles world No. 1 tennis player. In 1997, he became the first Indian to win a major tournament (with Rika Hiraki). With his win at the 2006 Australian Open mixed doubles, he ...
and
Mark Knowles
Mark Knowles (born 4 September 1971) is a Bahamian professional tennis coach and former professional tennis player, becoming the former number 1 in world as a specialist in doubles tennis. He won three of the four Grand Slam tournaments in m ...
in the quarterfinals.
The
US Open started well with victories over
Chase Buchanan
Chase Buchanan (born June 4, 1991) is an inactive American male tennis player. Buchanan grew up and attended grade school and high school in New Albany, Ohio and attended Ohio State University as a member of the tennis team.
Career
Buchanan rea ...
,
Jarkko Nieminen
Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...
, and
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
. However, Tsonga lost to 11th seed Chilean
Fernando González
Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (; born 29 July 1980) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career he made it to at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments. He played his only major final at the ...
in the fourth round. Tsonga then represented France at the
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
playoff round against the Netherlands. Tsonga defeated the
Jesse Huta Galung
Jesse Huta Galung (born 6 October 1985) is a former professional Dutch tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each play ...
Thiemo de Bakker
Thiemo Carsten Jannick de Bakker (born 19 September 1988) is a Dutch professional tennis player. Considered a top prospect of his generation as a junior, he also made an impressive breakthrough as a young pro, reaching a career-high ranking in ...
in singles and, with partner
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
, won in doubles over
Thiemo de Bakker
Thiemo Carsten Jannick de Bakker (born 19 September 1988) is a Dutch professional tennis player. Considered a top prospect of his generation as a junior, he also made an impressive breakthrough as a young pro, reaching a career-high ranking in ...
and
Igor Sijsling
Igor Sijsling (; born 18 August 1987) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. Sijsling reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 52 on 17 February 2014. His biggest accomplishment is reaching the final of Australian Open Do ...
, wrapping up the tie 4–1.
Tsonga then entered the
PTT Thailand Open, where he was the defending champion and top seed, as
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
withdrew just days before the tournament began. After two close matches, Tsonga crashed out to the young Serbian
Viktor Troicki
Viktor Troicki ( sr-Cyrl, Виктор Троицки, ; born 10 February 1986) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. He won his first ATP singles title at the 2010 Kremlin Cup, and his second and third ATP singles titles at the 2015 a ...
in the semifinals. Tsonga also competed in the doubles category with
Fabrice Santoro
Fabrice Vetea Santoro (born 9 December 1972) is a French retired tennis player. Successful in both singles and doubles, he had an unusually long professional career, with many of his accomplishments coming toward the end of his career, and he is ...
, but they lost to
Mischa Zverev
Mikhail "Mischa" Alexandrovich Zverev (russian: Михаил "Миша" Александрович Зверев, , ; born 22 August 1987) is a German professional tennis player born in Russia. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world ...
and
Guillermo García-López
Guillermo () is the Spanish form of the male given name William. The name is also commonly shortened to 'Guille' or, in Latin America, to nickname 'Memo'. People
*Guillermo Amor (born 1967), Spanish football manager and former player
*Guillermo Ar ...
in the semifinals. At the
Japan Open in Tokyo, Tsonga defeated
Mischa Zverev
Mikhail "Mischa" Alexandrovich Zverev (russian: Михаил "Миша" Александрович Зверев, , ; born 22 August 1987) is a German professional tennis player born in Russia. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world ...
,
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
,
Ernests Gulbis
Ernests Gulbis (, born 30 August 1988, nicknamed "Lord", "The Gull" or "Ernie") is a Latvian professional tennis player. In 2008, Gulbis won his first ATP Tour doubles title at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, teaming with Rainer Schütt ...
, and
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
to reach the final. There, he beat
Mikhail Youzhny
Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (born 25 June 1982), nicknamed "Misha" and "Colonel" by his fans, is a Russian retired professional tennis player who was ranked inside the top 10 and was the Russian No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the Assoc ...
in just over an hour to clinch his third title of the season and his first-ever ATP World Tour 500 title. In the doubles category, Tsonga paired with Swiss
Stanislas Wawrinka
Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ATP rankings, ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His ca ...
, but they were defeated in the second round.
Next up was a trip to China and the
Shanghai Masters. Tsonga defeated
Zeng Shao-Xuan, but lost to
Robin Söderling
Robin Bo Carl Söderling (; born 14 August 1984) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 15 November 2010. His career highlights include rea ...
in the third round. In doubles, paired with
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
, he made it to the finals, where they beat sixth seeded
Mariusz Fyrstenberg
Mariusz Stanisław Fyrstenberg (born 8 July 1980) is a retired left-handed Polish tennis player who was a doubles specialist.
Fyrstenberg primarily partnered Marcin Matkowski. The pair won the Madrid Open twice, in addition to reaching the fina ...
and
Marcin Matkowski
Marcin Matkowski (; born 15 January 1981) is a Polish former professional tennis player whose speciality is in doubles. He played college tennis at UCLA, where Jean-Julien Rojer was one of his teammates. Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg won the ...
to win their first-ever ATP Masters 1000 doubles title. After two disappointing tournaments at
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
and the
Valencia Open
The Valencia Open, formerly known as Open de Tenis Comunidad Valenciana, was a professional men's tennis tournament played in Valencia, Spain. It was part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. The tournament was first played in ...
, Tsonga entered the
Paris Masters
The Paris Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France. It is played indoors at the AccorHotels Arena, in the neighborhood of Bercy.
The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association o ...
, where he was the defending champion. He had wins over
Albert Montañés
Albert Montañés Roca (; born 26 November 1980) is a retired professional tennis player from Spain.
He first entered the top 100 in 2001. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 22 in 2010 and has won six singles titles and two ...
and
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
, but lost to No. 2
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
in the quarterfinals. He ended his 2009 season staying in the top 10 for the second year in a row.
2010: Davis Cup final
Tsonga switched his rackets to Babolat (previously using Wilson) and started his 2010 season at the
AAMI Kooyong Classic
The Kooyong Classic is a professional tennis Exhibition game, exhibition singles-only tournament, played on outdoor hard courts. It is held annually in January, right before the Australian Open, at the Kooyong Stadium in Kooyong, Victoria, Kooyon ...
, after recovering from a wrist injury. After two wins and a walkover, he lost to
Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player.
His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009.
His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...
in the final. At the
2010 Australian Open, Tsonga beat
Sergiy Stakhovsky
Sergiy Eduardovych Stakhovsky ( uk, Сергій Едуардович Стаховський, ; born January 6, 1986) is a Ukrainian former professional tennis player. Stakhovsky turned professional in 2003 and played mostly at the Challenger le ...
,
Taylor Dent
Taylor Phillip Dent (born April 24, 1981) is a retired professional tennis player from the United States. He reached a career-high singles ranking of World No. 21, winning 4 singles titles.
Career
Early career and back injury
Dent won ATP titl ...
,
Tommy Haas
Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...
, and
Nicolás Almagro
Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ch ...
. In the quarterfinals, he beat No. 3
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
, in his second five-set match. Tsonga's fatigue soon took a toll on him, however, as he was badly beaten in the semifinals by No. 1
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
.
Tsonga then entered
Open 13
The Open 13 is an annual men's tennis tournament played in Marseille, France. The tournament is an ATP World Tour 250 series event on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour. It is held for one week in February. The number 13 is the INSEE co ...
in Marseille, France. He had two wins, but lost against
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
in the semifinal, ending his title defense. Despite plans of not playing at the
2010 Dubai Tennis Championships, he accepted a wildcard and became the fifth seed in the tournament. He won against
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
, who retired due to injury, but then struggled with form and lost to
Ivan Ljubičić
Ivan Ljubičić (; born 19 March 1979) is a Croatian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006. His career highlights include reaching a Grand S ...
in the second round. The
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
was next against Germany. In the singles, Tsonga helped France take an unassailable 3–0 lead, by winning the second-rubber match against
Benjamin Becker
Benjamin Becker (born 16 June 1981) is a German retired professional tennis player who is known for defeating former world No. 1 Andre Agassi in the third round at the 2006 US Open in what was Agassi's last match as a professional player.
Bec ...
, but was forced to retire against
Simon Greul
Simon Greul (; born 13 April 1981) is a retired German male tennis player. His career high rank was No. 55, achieved on 22 March 2010.
Career
His major breakthrough was at the 2006 Nasdaq-100 Open, where after beating Adrián García and Ricar ...
due to a recurring injury.
At the
2010 BNP Paribas Open, Tsonga lost to
Robin Söderling
Robin Bo Carl Söderling (; born 14 August 1984) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 15 November 2010. His career highlights include rea ...
in the fourth round. He was seeded eighth at the
2010 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. He beat
Guillermo García-López
Guillermo () is the Spanish form of the male given name William. The name is also commonly shortened to 'Guille' or, in Latin America, to nickname 'Memo'. People
*Guillermo Amor (born 1967), Spanish football manager and former player
*Guillermo Ar ...
,
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber (; born 16 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player. The right-hander won eight singles and seven doubles titles on the ATP World Tour and made the quarterfinals at the 2012 Wimbledon Cha ...
, and 12th seed
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat (; born 12 February 1980) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. He won the men's singles title at the 2003 French Open, and in September of that year became the 21st player to hold the top ranking, which he h ...
, before losing to second seed
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
, after blowing eight break-point opportunities. Tsonga then made his debut at the
2010 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. He had a win over
Nicolás Almagro
Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ch ...
, but was edged out in a match against
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat (; born 12 February 1980) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. He won the men's singles title at the 2003 French Open, and in September of that year became the 21st player to hold the top ranking, which he h ...
.
![Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Jo-Wilfried_Tsonga_2010.jpg)
After nursing an injury, Tsonga entered the
2010 Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell. After wins over
Jan Hájek and
Nicolás Almagro
Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ch ...
, he was stunned by Dutch youngster
Thiemo de Bakker
Thiemo Carsten Jannick de Bakker (born 19 September 1988) is a Dutch professional tennis player. Considered a top prospect of his generation as a junior, he also made an impressive breakthrough as a young pro, reaching a career-high ranking in ...
in the quarterfinals. He made it all the way to the quarterfinals at the
2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia
The 2010 Italian Open (also known as the 2010 Rome Masters and sponsored title 2010 Internazionali BNL d'Italia) was a tennis tournament, being played on outdoor clay courts at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy. It was the 67th edition of the event ...
, but was beaten by 13th seed
David Ferrer
David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain Davis Cup team, Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP Tour 250, ATP 250, ATP Tour ...
. At the
2010 Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open, he was forced to retire in the opening round against Guillermo García-López.
Seeded eighth at the
2010 French Open
The 2010 French Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 114th edition of the French Open, and the second Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from 23 May through ...
, Tsonga defeated
Daniel Brands
Daniel Brands (born 17 July 1987) is a German retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 51, achieved in August 2013.
Professional career 2008
Brands began 2008 ranked No. 220. After a few unimpressive tou ...
, in five sets,
Josselin Ouanna
Josselin Ouanna (born 14 April 1986) is a retired French tennis player.
Biography
Born in Tours and Guadeloupean origin, he was quickly spotted and integrates INSEP with her friends of "blackteam" Gaël Monfils (of Caribbean origin) and Jo-Wil ...
, and
Thiemo de Bakker
Thiemo Carsten Jannick de Bakker (born 19 September 1988) is a Dutch professional tennis player. Considered a top prospect of his generation as a junior, he also made an impressive breakthrough as a young pro, reaching a career-high ranking in ...
. Unfortunately, in the fourth round, Tsonga had to withdraw after losing the first set against
Mikhail Youzhny
Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (born 25 June 1982), nicknamed "Misha" and "Colonel" by his fans, is a Russian retired professional tennis player who was ranked inside the top 10 and was the Russian No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the Assoc ...
, due to the progressive regional back pain from the previous round. Scans showed that Tsonga had sustained a right hip injury. In a tune-up event to Wimbledon, at the
Boodles Challenge
The Boodles Tennis Challenge (former Boodle and Dunthorne Champions Challenge) is an international five-day tennis exhibition held at Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire, England. In coordination with Boodles, a luxury jeweler, it was initially foun ...
exhibition tournament, Tsonga had wins against
Nikolay Davydenko
Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( rus, Никола́й Влади́мирович Давыде́нко ; born 2 June 1981) is a Ukrainian-born Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 i ...
and
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber (; born 16 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player. The right-hander won eight singles and seven doubles titles on the ATP World Tour and made the quarterfinals at the 2012 Wimbledon Cha ...
.
The All England Club was Tsonga's next stop, and he was seeded tenth. He had tough wins over
Robert Kendrick
Robert Bradley Kendrick (born November 15, 1979) is an American retired professional tennis player. He turned professional in 2000. His career-high singles ranking is World No. 69, achieved in July 2009.
Early life
Robert Kendrick was born to T ...
and
Alexandr Dolgopolov
Alexandr Oleksandrovych Dolgopolov (born 7 November 1988), formerly known as Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr., is a Ukrainian retired professional tennis player. He changed his forename spelling to the current form in May 2010. Dolgopolov reached the ...
, before easier victories over
Tobias Kamke
Tobias Kamke (born 21 May 1986) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 64 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved in January 2011. In 2010, Kamke was awarded ...
and
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
. However, in the quarterfinals, he eventually fell to home favorite
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
in four sets. Not long after his Wimbledon campaign, Jo suffered a heavy knee injury. It caused him to withdraw from all the US Open Series events, including the
US Open.
Tsonga made his return in October for his title defense at the
2010 Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships as the third seed, but rustiness was apparent, and he lost early to
Jarkko Nieminen
Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...
. Entering the
2010 Shanghai Rolex Masters 1000 as the 12th seed, Tsonga had wins over
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
,
Sam Querrey
Samuel Austin Querrey (; born October 7, 1987) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 achieved on February 26, 2018, and won ten ATP singles titles. Known for his powerful serve ...
, and
Florian Mayer
Florian Mayer (; born 5 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player.
Mayer reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 in June 2011. Also in 2011, Mayer won his first ATP title after four previous defeats in ATP fin ...
, before losing in the quarterfinals in straight sets to eventual champion
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
. He then entered the
Kremlin Cup
The Kremlin Cup (russian: Кубок Кремля) is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts, which was suspended in 2022. It was part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour and was a Premier Tournament on the WTA ...
in Moscow, but lost against
Viktor Troicki
Viktor Troicki ( sr-Cyrl, Виктор Троицки, ; born 10 February 1986) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. He won his first ATP singles title at the 2010 Kremlin Cup, and his second and third ATP singles titles at the 2015 a ...
in the second round. A week later, Tsonga made a semifinal appearance at the
Open Sud de France
The Open Sud de France (formerly known as the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon) is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is currently part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour. It was held annually at the Palais des ...
in Montpellier, but was beaten by
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
for the first time.
During the week in Montpellier, Tsonga re-aggravated his knee problem. He missed the
Paris Masters
The Paris Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France. It is played indoors at the AccorHotels Arena, in the neighborhood of Bercy.
The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association o ...
, as well as the important French
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
final against
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
. It was a tough end to the season for Tsonga, as he finished the season outside the top 10 for the first time in three years, compiled a 31–16 win–loss record (his worst tally since 2007), and failed to reach a single final during the season.
2011: Tour Finals and Paris Masters finals
Tsonga started his ATP season with an exhibition tournament at
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area.
...
. However, Tsonga suffered a loss to
Robin Soderling
Robin may refer to:
Animals
* Australasian robins, red-breasted songbirds of the family Petroicidae
* Many members of the subfamily Saxicolinae (Old World chats), including:
**European robin (''Erithacus rubecula'')
**Bush-robin
**Forest rob ...
, but later told the press that being out of tennis for several months last season has made him hungry and determined.
At the
Qatar ExxonMobil Open, Tsonga defeated
Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo
Rubén Ramírez Hidalgo (; born 6 January 1978 in Alicante, Spain) is a former professional male tennis player from Spain. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 50, achieved on 2 October 2006. His favourite surface is clay, where h ...
,
Sergei Bubka, and
Guillermo García-López
Guillermo () is the Spanish form of the male given name William. The name is also commonly shortened to 'Guille' or, in Latin America, to nickname 'Memo'. People
*Guillermo Amor (born 1967), Spanish football manager and former player
*Guillermo Ar ...
, before losing to
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
in the semifinal. The
AAMI Kooyong Classic
The Kooyong Classic is a professional tennis Exhibition game, exhibition singles-only tournament, played on outdoor hard courts. It is held annually in January, right before the Australian Open, at the Kooyong Stadium in Kooyong, Victoria, Kooyon ...
had Tsonga losing early to
Jürgen Melzer
Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a younger brother, Geral ...
. Tsonga then entered the
2011 Australian Open
The 2011 Australian Open was a tennis tournament featuring six different competitions, and part of the 2011 ATP World Tour, the 2011 WTA Tour, ITF Junior Tour and the NEC Tour, as tournaments for professional, junior and wheelchair players wer ...
. After a thrilling win over
Philipp Petzschner
Philipp Petzschner (born 24 March 1984) is a retired German professional tennis player. He was known for his hard-hitting forehand and bursts of speed around the court. He reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 9, which he achieved in ...
and breezing past
Andreas Seppi
Andreas Seppi (born 21 February 1984) is an Italian former professional tennis player.
He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 on 28 January 2013. He became the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces.
Tennis car ...
, Tsonga lost to
Alexandr Dolgopolov
Alexandr Oleksandrovych Dolgopolov (born 7 November 1988), formerly known as Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr., is a Ukrainian retired professional tennis player. He changed his forename spelling to the current form in May 2010. Dolgopolov reached the ...
in five sets. The third round exit marked Tsonga's worst performance at the Australian Open since 2007.
Tsonga then participated in the
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
The Rotterdam Open, also known by its sponsored name ABN AMRO Open, and formely known as: ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament (1991-2021), is a professional men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is part of the ATP Tour 500 series ...
in
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
, Netherlands. He defeated Bulgarian
Grigor Dimitrov
Grigor Dimitrov ( bg, Григор Димитров, ; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on ...
,
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
, and
Ivan Ljubičić
Ivan Ljubičić (; born 19 March 1979) is a Croatian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006. His career highlights include reaching a Grand S ...
to reach his first final since winning the Japan Open in 2009, but lost there to
Robin Söderling
Robin Bo Carl Söderling (; born 14 August 1984) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 15 November 2010. His career highlights include rea ...
. At the
Open 13
The Open 13 is an annual men's tennis tournament played in Marseille, France. The tournament is an ATP World Tour 250 series event on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour. It is held for one week in February. The number 13 is the INSEE co ...
tennis tournament, Tsonga lost to Russian
Mikhail Youzhny
Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (born 25 June 1982), nicknamed "Misha" and "Colonel" by his fans, is a Russian retired professional tennis player who was ranked inside the top 10 and was the Russian No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the Assoc ...
in the quarterfinals. A day later, he declared that he had sustained another ankle injury, which again put him out of Davis Cup action against Austria. Tsonga fell in the opening round at the
2011 BNP Paribas Open
The 2011 BNP Paribas Open was a tennis tournament played at Indian Wells, California in March 2011. It was the 38th edition of the men's event (23rd for the women), known as the BNP Paribas Open, and was classified as an ATP World Tour Masters ...
.
At the
2011 Sony Ericsson Open, as the 15th seed, Tsonga's poor form continued. He managed to get a win over
Teymuraz Gabashvili
Teymuraz Besikovich Gabashvili ( rus, Теймураз Бесикович Габашвили, , tɛɪ̯mʊˈraz ɡəbɐˈʂvʲilʲɪ; born 23 May 1985) is a Russian professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of World No. 4 ...
, but fell to
Alexandr Dolgopolov
Alexandr Oleksandrovych Dolgopolov (born 7 November 1988), formerly known as Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr., is a Ukrainian retired professional tennis player. He changed his forename spelling to the current form in May 2010. Dolgopolov reached the ...
in a match that lasted two days. Afterwards, he announced that he and his longtime coach
Éric Winogradsky
Éric Winogradsky (born 22 April 1966) is a French former professional tennis player. He never reached a final in singles on the ATP Tour, but was much more successful in doubles, winning two titles and finishing runner-up at the 1989 French Op ...
had decided to part ways after working together for seven years. At the
2011 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, he had a win over
Juan Mónaco
Juan Mónaco (; born 29 March 1984), nicknamed "Pico", is an Argentine former tennis player. He won nine singles titles, reached the semifinals of the 2010 Shanghai Masters and the 2012 Miami Masters, and achieved a career-high singles ranking ...
, but was beaten by
Ivan Ljubičić
Ivan Ljubičić (; born 19 March 1979) is a Croatian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006. His career highlights include reaching a Grand S ...
in round two. Then came a first-round loss at the
2011 Estoril Open
The 2011 Estoril Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 22nd edition of the Estoril Open for the men (the 15th for the women), and was part of the ATP World Tour 250 series of the 2011 ATP World Tour, and of the ...
. Tsonga then found some form at the
2011 Mutua Madrid Open, beating first-time top-10 debutant
Nicolás Almagro
Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ch ...
, before losing to
Robin Söderling
Robin Bo Carl Söderling (; born 14 August 1984) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 15 November 2010. His career highlights include rea ...
in the third round. At the
2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia
The 2011 Italian Open (also known as the 2011 Rome Masters and sponsored title 2011 Internazionali BNL d'Italia) was a tennis tournament, being played on outdoor clay courts at the Foro Italico in Rome, Italy. It was the 68th edition of the event ...
, he beat juniors rival
Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis ( el, Μάρκος Παγδατής, ar, ماركوس بغداتيس; ; born 17 June 1985) is a Cypriot former professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimble ...
, but lost to
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
in the second round.
Tsonga was 19th seed heading into the
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
. He beat both
Jan Hájek and
Igor Andreev
Igor Valeryevich Andreev (russian: link=no, И́горь Вале́рьевич Андре́ев, BGN/PCGN: ''Andreyev'', ISO 9: ''Andreev'', ; born 14 July 1983) is a Russian former professional tennis player. He won three ATP Tour singles ti ...
in straight sets and made it to the third round, where he was defeated by 14th seed
Stanislas Wawrinka
Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ATP rankings, ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His ca ...
. At the 2011 Aegon Championships in London, Tsonga received a first-round bye, then beat
Michael Berrer
Michael Berrer (born 1 July 1980) is a German retired professional tennis player. He reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 42 in May 2010.
Career
2010
He reached the quarterfinal at the Aircel Chennai Open in January, losing to ...
and No. 1
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
, while moving through to the semifinals for the first time in a grass tournament. In the semifinals, he defeated British wildcard
James Ward James Ward may refer to:
Military
*James Ward (Medal of Honor, 1864) (1833–?), American Civil War sailor
* James Ward (Medal of Honor, 1890) (1854–1901), American Indian Wars soldier
*James Allen Ward (1919–1941), New Zealand pilot and Vi ...
, but he let slip a healthy lead into a loss against
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
in the final. Just 24 hours later, he arrived at the
2011 Aegon International in Eastbourne as the top seed. In his opening round, he defeated
Denis Istomin
Denis Olegovich Istomin (born 7 September 1986) is an Uzbek professional tennis player. He has won two singles titles (at the 2015 Aegon Open Nottingham and 2017 Chengdu Open) and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 33 in Au ...
, but he lost to
Radek Štěpánek
Radek Štěpánek (; born 27 November 1978) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 8 and best doubles ranking was world No. 4. Štěpánek's biggest achievements are reaching two Masters 1000 ...
in round two.
![Flickr - Carine06 - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (3)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Flickr_-_Carine06_-_Jo-Wilfried_Tsonga_%283%29.jpg)
At the
2011 Wimbledon Championships
The 2011 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 125th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fro ...
, Tsonga defeated
Go Soeda
is a former professional Japanese tennis player. He started playing tennis at the age of four and turned professional in April 2003. He has won 18 singles titles on the ATP Challenger Tour, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of w ...
,
Grigor Dimitrov
Grigor Dimitrov ( bg, Григор Димитров, ; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on ...
,
Fernando González
Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (; born 29 July 1980) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career he made it to at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments. He played his only major final at the ...
, and
David Ferrer
David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain Davis Cup team, Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP Tour 250, ATP 250, ATP Tour ...
. In the quarterfinals, he stunned the Centre Court crowd by coming from two sets down to defeat
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
. This handed Federer his first loss in a Grand Slam after leading two sets to love, while handing Tsonga only his second win in coming back from two sets down. In the semifinals, however, despite serving for the first set and saving three match points in the third-set tiebreak, he eventually lost to second seed and eventual champion
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
in four sets.
At the
Rogers Cup
The Canadian Open (french: Tournoi de tennis du Canada), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. T ...
in Montreal, Tsonga defeated
Fabio Fognini
Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. He is currently ranked (July 2022) in 64th place by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
,
Bernard Tomic
Bernard Tomic (; hr, Bernard Tomić, ; born 21 October 1992) is an Australian professional tennis player whose career-high ranking was world No. 17. As a junior, Tomic enjoyed a successful career in which he won an Orange Bowl title and two ju ...
,
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
, and
Nicolás Almagro
Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ch ...
, to set up a Wimbledon semifinal rematch against
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
. After trailing 4–6, 0–3, Tsonga retired due to an arm problem. At the
2011 Western & Southern Open
The 2011 Western & Southern Open, also known as the Cincinnati Open, was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, United States. The tournament was a joint men's and women's event, with s ...
, Tsonga defeated
Marin Čilić
Marin Čilić (; born 28 September 1988) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Čilić has won 20 ATP Tour singles titles, including a major at the 2014 US Open. He was also runner-up at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and the 2018 Austral ...
, but lost to American qualifier
Alex Bogomolov, Jr.
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Bogomolov Jr. (russian: Александр Александрович «Алекс» Богомолов; born April 23, 1983), nicknamed Bogie, is a Russian-American retired professional tennis player.
Tennis caree ...
At the
US Open, he defeated
Lu Yen-hsun
Lu Yen-hsun (; born 14 August 1983) is a Taiwanese retired professional tennis player, who goes by the nickname Rendy Lu.
He won the most titles on the ATP Challenger Tour in tennis history. His favorite surface is hardcourt, though several of ...
,
Sergei Bubka,
Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player.
His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009.
His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...
, and
Mardy Fish
Mardy Simpson Fish (born December 9, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. He was a hardcourt specialist. He is one of several American tennis players who rose to prominence in the early 2000s.Fish won six tournaments on the mai ...
. He again met
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
in the quarterfinals, but this time Federer swept him aside in three sets.
Tsonga teamed up with
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
to notch an impressive victory over
Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player.
His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009.
His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...
and
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
in Davis Cup play against Spain, but then was crushed by
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
in his fourth singles rubber, as France lost the tie against Spain 1–4. Tsonga played at the
2011 Open de Moselle, where he was the top-seeded player. He defeated
Mathieu Rodrigues and
Nicolas Mahut
Nicolas Pierre Armand Mahut (; born 21 January 1982) is a French professional tennis player who is a former world No. 1 in doubles.
He is a five-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having completed the career Grand Slam with victories at the ...
, and in the semifinals he ended a two-match losing streak against
Alexandr Dolgopolov
Alexandr Oleksandrovych Dolgopolov (born 7 November 1988), formerly known as Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr., is a Ukrainian retired professional tennis player. He changed his forename spelling to the current form in May 2010. Dolgopolov reached the ...
. In the final, Tsonga fought past
Ivan Ljubičić
Ivan Ljubičić (; born 19 March 1979) is a Croatian former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 3 singles ranking on 1 May 2006. His career highlights include reaching a Grand S ...
in three sets to win the tournament; his first title in almost two years since his triumph in Tokyo.
Tsonga, again as a top seed, played at the
2011 China Open for the first time since 2007. He opened with wins over
Grigor Dimitrov
Grigor Dimitrov ( bg, Григор Димитров, ; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on ...
,
Zhang Ze
Zhang Ze (; ; born July 4, 1990), is a Chinese male tennis player.
Zhang's career highlights include reaching the quarterfinals of the 2012 China Open (defeating Richard Gasquet en route), playing the Australian Open main draw in two consec ...
, and
Juan Carlos Ferrero
Juan Carlos Ferrero Donat (; born 12 February 1980) is a Spanish former world No. 1 tennis player. He won the men's singles title at the 2003 French Open, and in September of that year became the 21st player to hold the top ranking, which he h ...
. As expected, his semifinals match against
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
was extremely difficult. Berdych took the first set and Tsonga the second, but Tsonga could not withstand Berdych's growing confidence in a three-set loss. Tsonga was fourth seed for the 2011
Shanghai Rolex Masters
The Shanghai Masters ( zh, , s=上海大师赛, also known as Shanghai Rolex Masters for sponsorship reasons) is a professional men's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts, and held annually in early October at the Qizhong Forest Sports ...
. Tsonga lost his first match to
Kei Nishikori
is an inactive Japanese professional tennis player. He is the second male Japanese player to have been ranked in the top 5 in singles (after Jiro Sato), and the only one to do so in the Open Era. Nishikori first reached his career-high singles ...
. Vienna was the next destination for Tsonga in the
2011 Erste Bank Open. Victories over
Jarkko Nieminen
Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...
,
Xavier Malisse
Xavier Malisse (born 19 July 1980) is a former Belgian professional tennis player. Born in the north-western Flemish city of Kortrijk and nicknamed ''X-Man'', he is one of only two Belgian men (the other being David Goffin) to have been ranked i ...
, and
Daniel Brands
Daniel Brands (born 17 July 1987) is a German retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 51, achieved in August 2013.
Professional career 2008
Brands began 2008 ranked No. 220. After a few unimpressive tou ...
set up a final against
Juan Martín del Potro
Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...
. The first set was tight with del Potro taking it in a tie-break, but Tsonga prevailed in sets two and three for his second title of the season.
Just two days after Tsonga's victory in Vienna, Tsonga played his first-round match at the
2011 Valencia Open 500
The 2011 Valencia Open 500 was a men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 17th edition of the Open de Tenis Comunidad Valenciana, and was part of the 500 Series of the 2011 ATP World Tour. It was held at the Ciutat de les ...
as second seed. He lost in round two to
Sam Querrey
Samuel Austin Querrey (; born October 7, 1987) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 achieved on February 26, 2018, and won ten ATP singles titles. Known for his powerful serve ...
. As expected, the home crowd warmed to Jo from the start of the
2011 BNP Paribas Masters
The 2011 BNP Paribas Masters, also known as the ''Paris Masters'', was an ATP World Tour professional men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 39th edition of the tournament which was part of the 2011 ATP World Tour. It ...
. Tsonga had wins over
Guillermo García-López
Guillermo () is the Spanish form of the male given name William. The name is also commonly shortened to 'Guille' or, in Latin America, to nickname 'Memo'. People
*Guillermo Amor (born 1967), Spanish football manager and former player
*Guillermo Ar ...
,
Andreas Seppi
Andreas Seppi (born 21 February 1984) is an Italian former professional tennis player.
He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 on 28 January 2013. He became the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces.
Tennis car ...
, and
John Isner
John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Considered one of the best servers e ...
, which set up a final against
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
. Federer stormed through the first set and then won a tiebreak in the second to take the title.
As a result of Tsonga's exploits in the Paris Masters, he qualified for the
Barclays ATP World Tour Finals
The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results th ...
. Tsonga fell to Federer, beat
Mardy Fish
Mardy Simpson Fish (born December 9, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. He was a hardcourt specialist. He is one of several American tennis players who rose to prominence in the early 2000s.Fish won six tournaments on the mai ...
, and defeated
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
to make it to the semifinals. A win over
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
sent Tsonga to the finals of the year-end championships for the first time in his career. In the final, Tsonga fought bravely, but came up short once again against
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
. Tsonga finished the year matching his 2008 career-high ranking of No. 6.
2012: World No. 5, Olympic Silver
Just before 2012 began, Tsonga participated in the
Abu Dhabi exhibition tournament in late December 2011, where he lost a match against
David Ferrer
David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain Davis Cup team, Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP Tour 250, ATP 250, ATP Tour ...
. Tsonga then began his 2012 season at the
2012 Qatar Open as third seed. Three wins set up a meeting against
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
in the semifinals. However, Federer announced an unexpected withdrawal from the tournament due to a back problem, which gave Tsonga a walkover into the final. In the final, he won against
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
and was named champion of the
2012 Qatar Open. Tsonga then played in the
2012 AAMI Classic exhibition tournament and lost the two matches he played.
A week later, Tsonga had wins over
Denis Istomin
Denis Olegovich Istomin (born 7 September 1986) is an Uzbek professional tennis player. He has won two singles titles (at the 2015 Aegon Open Nottingham and 2017 Chengdu Open) and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 33 in Au ...
,
Ricardo Mello
Ricardo Mello (born 21 December 1980) is a Brazilian retired tennis player. His preference is for clay courts. He has had the occasional win in hard court tournaments. His best singles rank was No. 50 in 2005. He won one singles tournament (Delra ...
, and
Frederico Gil
João Frederico Limpo Franco Gil (born 24 March 1985), known as Fred Gil (), is a retired Portuguese professional tennis player, who currently competes in the ITF Men's Circuit. He is ranked no. 432 in the world by the Association of Tennis Prof ...
to make the round of 16 at the
2012 Australian Open
The 2012 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 16 to 29 January 2012. It was the 100th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournamen ...
. However, against Japanese rookie
Kei Nishikori
is an inactive Japanese professional tennis player. He is the second male Japanese player to have been ranked in the top 5 in singles (after Jiro Sato), and the only one to do so in the Open Era. Nishikori first reached his career-high singles ...
, Tsonga lost a close five set match. He took some time off before entering the
2012 Open 13. Two routine wins placed him in the semifinals against
Juan Martín del Potro
Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...
, where he lost in three sets. Next on the calendar was the
2012 Dubai Tennis Championships. Tsonga, seeded fourth, defeated
Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis ( el, Μάρκος Παγδατής, ar, ماركوس بغداتيس; ; born 17 June 1985) is a Cypriot former professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimble ...
and
Lukáš Rosol
Lukáš Rosol (; born 24 July 1985) is a Czech professional tennis player. He competes on the ATP Challenger Tour and the ATP Tour, both in singles and doubles. Rosol was coached by former Czech player, 1999 US Open quarterfinalist Ctislav Dosed ...
, but lost once again to del Potro.
The first Masters Series of the season, the
2012 BNP Paribas Open saw struggles. A retirement by
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
and a win over
Radek Štěpánek
Radek Štěpánek (; born 27 November 1978) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 8 and best doubles ranking was world No. 4. Štěpánek's biggest achievements are reaching two Masters 1000 ...
preceded a loss to
David Nalbandian
David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine retired professional tennis player who played on the ATP Tour from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. He reached the highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006. Nalban ...
, after holding a match point. At the
2012 Sony Ericsson Open
The 2012 Sony Ericsson Open (also known as 2012 Miami Masters), a men's and women's tennis tournament, was held from March 19 to April 1, 2012. It was the 28th edition of the Miami Masters event and played on outdoor hard courts at the Tennis Cen ...
, four easy wins paved the way to a quarterfinal encounter with
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
. Tsonga fought hard, but it was not quite enough, as Nadal battled to a three-set win.
In
Davis Cup play, Tsonga beat
Ryan Harrison
Ryan Harrison (born May 7, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. Harrison has won one career ATP title in singles at the 2017 Memphis Open to go along with four in doubles, including the 2017 French Open.
Before turning 16, Harriso ...
and lost to
John Isner
John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Considered one of the best servers e ...
. France was eliminated from the event. The start of the clay-court run was next at the
2012 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters. The results were wins against
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber (; born 16 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player. The right-hander won eight singles and seven doubles titles on the ATP World Tour and made the quarterfinals at the 2012 Wimbledon Cha ...
and
Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player.
His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009.
His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...
and a loss against
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
. The
2012 BMW Open yielded a first-round loss to
Tommy Haas
Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...
. The
2012 Mutua Madrid Open
The 2012 Madrid Masters (also known as the Mutua Madrid Open for sponsorship reasons) was played on outdoor blue clay courts at the Park Manzanares in Madrid, Spain from 7 to 13 May. It was the 11th edition of the event on the ATP and 4th on th ...
was similar, with a second-round loss to
Alexandr Dolgopolov
Alexandr Oleksandrovych Dolgopolov (born 7 November 1988), formerly known as Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr., is a Ukrainian retired professional tennis player. He changed his forename spelling to the current form in May 2010. Dolgopolov reached the ...
. The
2012 Internazionali BNL d'Italia followed. Two victories against
Viktor Troicki
Viktor Troicki ( sr-Cyrl, Виктор Троицки, ; born 10 February 1986) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. He won his first ATP singles title at the 2010 Kremlin Cup, and his second and third ATP singles titles at the 2015 a ...
and
Juan Martín del Potro
Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...
set up a loss to top seed
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
in the quarterfinals.
Tsonga's
French Open 2012
The 2012 French Open (also known as Roland Garros, after the famous French aviator) was a tennis tournament played on outdoor clay courts. It was the 116th edition of the French Open, and took place at the Stade Roland Garros from 27 May until 11 ...
started off in shaky fashion after dropping the first set to Russian qualifier
Andrey Kuznetsov. However, he closed out the match and then had wins over
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe
Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (; born 9 October 1990) is a German professional tennis player. He reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 71 in February 2012.
Career 2011: Grand Slam and Top 100 debut
He reached his first ATP World Tour quarte ...
,
Fabio Fognini
Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. He is currently ranked (July 2022) in 64th place by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
, and
Stanislas Wawrinka
Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ATP rankings, ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His ca ...
. In the quarterfinals against
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
, he lost in five sets. The grass-court season began with the
Aegon Championships
The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
. He defeated Britain's
Jamie Baker, but was ousted by
Ivan Dodig
Ivan Dodig (; born 2 January 1985) is a Croatian professional tennis player who primarily specialises in doubles.
He is a six-time Grand Slam champion, having won men's doubles titles at the 2015 French Open with Marcelo Melo, and the 2021 Aus ...
in three extremely tight sets. He also suffered a finger injury during the match after diving in an attempt to retrieve a ball.
In the days leading up to
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, it was announced that Tsonga had a severely sprained finger, but would still compete. This proved to be a good tournament for Tsonga, with wins over
Lleyton Hewitt
Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He is the most recent Australian man to win a major singles title, with two at the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon Championships. In November 200 ...
,
Guillermo García-López
Guillermo () is the Spanish form of the male given name William. The name is also commonly shortened to 'Guille' or, in Latin America, to nickname 'Memo'. People
*Guillermo Amor (born 1967), Spanish football manager and former player
*Guillermo Ar ...
,
Lukáš Lacko
Lukáš Lacko (; born 3 November 1987) is a former professional Slovak tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is World No. 44, achieved in January 2013.
Tennis career Juniors
As a junior Lacko compiled a singles win–loss record ...
,
Mardy Fish
Mardy Simpson Fish (born December 9, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. He was a hardcourt specialist. He is one of several American tennis players who rose to prominence in the early 2000s.Fish won six tournaments on the mai ...
, and
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber (; born 16 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player. The right-hander won eight singles and seven doubles titles on the ATP World Tour and made the quarterfinals at the 2012 Wimbledon Cha ...
. He then faced
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
for a place in the final, but despite managing to fight back to take the third set, Tsonga was ousted by the No. 4-ranked Murray.
![Jo-Wilfried Tsonga OG London 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Jo-Wilfried_Tsonga_OG_London_2012.jpg)
The
2012 London Summer Olympics was next up for Tsonga. His victory over
Milos Raonic
Milos Raonic (; sr, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian inactive professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), wh ...
in the second round became the longest ever (in number of games played) at the Olympics. Fatigue, surprisingly, did not appear to affect Tsonga in the third round. He eased into the quarterfinals over
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
, but lost to No. 2
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
. In the men's doubles event, Tsonga represented France alongside
Michaël Llodra
Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...
. The pair won their opening match against Argentinians
David Nalbandian
David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine retired professional tennis player who played on the ATP Tour from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. He reached the highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006. Nalban ...
and
Eduardo Schwank
Eduardo Jonatan Schwank (; also known as ''Schwanka''; born 23 April 1986) is a retired professional tennis player from Argentina. In 2011, he reached the finals of the French Open in men's doubles partnering Juan Sebastian Cabal and of the US O ...
, and followed it with a win over India's
Leander Paes
Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men' ...
and
Vishnu Vardhan
Vishnu Vardhan (born 27 July 1987), also known as J. Vishnuvardhan, is a professional tennis player from India. He won bronze medal in men's doubles at 2010 Asian games in Guangzhou, China. He paired-up with and Sania Mirza for mixed doubles an ...
. They faced the Brazilian duo of
Marcelo Melo
Marcelo is a given name, the Spanish and Portuguese form of Marcellus. The Italian version of the name is Marcello, differing in having an additional "l". Marcelo may refer to:
* Marcelo Costa de Andrade (born 1967), Brazilian serial killer, rapi ...
and
Bruno Soares
Bruno Fraga Soares (; born 27 February 1982) is a Brazilian former professional tennis player who specialises in doubles.
A doubles specialist, Soares won six major titles, the Australian Open and US Open in 2016 alongside Jamie Murray, and ...
in the quarterfinals, and earned a two set victory for a semifinal berth. In a marathon encounter, they won their next match against the Spaniards López and
David Ferrer
David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain Davis Cup team, Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP Tour 250, ATP 250, ATP Tour ...
, 18–16 in the third set. In the finals, they faced the top seeded Americans
Mike and Bob Bryan, but lost in straight sets, thus winning the Olympic silver medal.
Tsonga's
Rogers Cup
The Canadian Open (french: Tournoi de tennis du Canada), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. T ...
campaign was an extremely short affair with a second-round loss to fellow Frenchman
Jérémy Chardy
Jérémy Chardy (; born 12 February 1987) is a French inactive professional tennis player. He has won one ATP Tour singles title, in Stuttgart in 2009. His best Grand Slam performance in singles was reaching the quarterfinals of the 2013 Austra ...
. He also crashed out in the second round of the
2012 US Open, after a defeat by No. 52
Martin Kližan
Martin Kližan (; born 11 July 1989) is a Slovak former professional tennis player. The winner of the 2006 French Open boys' singles title, Kližan turned pro in 2007 and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 24, achieved on 27 April ...
. After a short break for recovery, Jo was back in France for the
2012 Moselle Open. Tsonga rolled to a semifinal berth with Russian
Nikolay Davydenko
Nikolay Vladimirovich Davydenko ( rus, Никола́й Влади́мирович Давыде́нко ; born 2 June 1981) is a Ukrainian-born Russian former professional tennis player. He achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 3 i ...
. Tsonga had never beaten Davydenko in two previous attempts, but made sure that run was not extended to three with a tight three-set win. The final was an easy two-set win over
Andreas Seppi
Andreas Seppi (born 21 February 1984) is an Italian former professional tennis player.
He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 18 on 28 January 2013. He became the first Italian to win a title on all three surfaces.
Tennis car ...
, Tsonga's ninth ATP career title.
At the
2012 China Open, Tsonga had a bye, a win, and a walkover before beating
Mikhail Youzhny
Mikhail Mikhailovich Youzhny (born 25 June 1982), nicknamed "Misha" and "Colonel" by his fans, is a Russian retired professional tennis player who was ranked inside the top 10 and was the Russian No. 1. He achieved a top-10 ranking by the Assoc ...
in the quarterfinals. An easy win over
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
advanced Tsonga to his third final of the year. No. 2
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
was his opponent. Djokovic pulled away in the second, taking the match in two sets. Tsonga continued his year with the
2012 Shanghai Masters
The 2012 Bank of Communications, Bank of Communication Shanghai Masters (snooker), Shanghai Masters was a professional Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament that took place between 17 and 23 September 2012 at the Shanghai Indoor St ...
. He had wins over
Benoît Paire
Benoît Paire (; born 8 May 1989) is a French professional tennis player.
His best result in a Grand Slam has been reaching the fourth round, which he has achieved on four occasions. He has won three singles titles, at the 2015 Swedish Open, t ...
and
Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis ( el, Μάρκος Παγδατής, ar, ماركوس بغداتيس; ; born 17 June 1985) is a Cypriot former professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimble ...
, but he lost in the quarterfinals to
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
in straight sets. The busy schedule continued in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
. Tsonga cruised past
Go Soeda
is a former professional Japanese tennis player. He started playing tennis at the age of four and turned professional in April 2003. He has won 18 singles titles on the ATP Challenger Tour, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of w ...
and
Sergiy Stakhovsky
Sergiy Eduardovych Stakhovsky ( uk, Сергій Едуардович Стаховський, ; born January 6, 1986) is a Ukrainian former professional tennis player. Stakhovsky turned professional in 2003 and played mostly at the Challenger le ...
in the opening rounds, and had Baghdatis retire against him after a close semifinal match. This set up a final against Tomáš Berdych – the second time in two weeks. Despite being a set and a break up, Tsonga lost in three sets.
At the
Valencia Open
The Valencia Open, formerly known as Open de Tenis Comunidad Valenciana, was a professional men's tennis tournament played in Valencia, Spain. It was part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. The tournament was first played in ...
, Tsonga retired against
Xavier Malisse
Xavier Malisse (born 19 July 1980) is a former Belgian professional tennis player. Born in the north-western Flemish city of Kortrijk and nicknamed ''X-Man'', he is one of only two Belgian men (the other being David Goffin) to have been ranked i ...
. The Race To London was almost decided. Tsonga needed a quarterfinal appearance in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
to secure it for certain. Tsonga came through an extremely tight encounter with
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
and then beat Spaniard
Nicolás Almagro
Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ch ...
; though Tsonga fell to
David Ferrer
David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain Davis Cup team, Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP Tour 250, ATP 250, ATP Tour ...
in the quarterfinals, his win over Almagro secured his place in the
ATP World Tour Finals
The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results th ...
. The Tour Finals found Tsonga with a new coach,
Roger Rasheed.
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
was his first round-robin opponent and Tsonga lost in two sets. Two more losses to
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
and
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
ended his season.
2013: French Open semifinal, 10th title
Rather than entering an ATP-recognised event, Tsonga opted for the
2013 Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup XXV (also known as the Hyundai Hopman Cup for sponsorship reasons) corresponds to the 25th edition of the Hopman Cup tournament between nations in men's and women's tennis. The tournament commenced on 29 December 2012 at the Perth ...
, where he was paired with
Mathilde Johansson
Mathilde Johansson (born 28 April 1985) is a Swedish-born retired French tennis player.[Fernando Verdasco
Fernando Verdasco Carmona (; born 15 November 1983) is a Spanish professional tennis player.
His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7, achieved in April 2009.
His best performance in a Grand Slam was making the semifinals of the 2009 ...]
, but Johansson lost her singles, and the pair lost the doubles. Tsonga next played USA. Jo demolished
John Isner
John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).
Considered one of the best servers e ...
, but in similar fashion, Johansson lost to
Venus Williams
Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American professional tennis player. A former world No. 1 in both singles and doubles, Williams has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is ...
, and the pair lost to the Americans in the mixed doubles. Lastly, France faced South Africa. Tsonga beat
Kevin Anderson, before Johansson lost to
Chanelle Scheepers
Chanelle Scheepers ( ; born 13 March 1984) is a retired South African tennis player.
She won one singles and one doubles title on the WTA Tour, as well as 12 singles and 20 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit in her career. On 10 October ...
, and the pair was forced to retire in the doubles with Tsonga injured. France finished bottom of their group, but despite the injury, Jo was declared fit for the
2013 Australian Open
The 2013 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 to 27 January 2013. It was the 101st edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournament ...
, where he reached the quarterfinals but lost a thrilling five setter against
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
.
In Rotterdam, Tsonga made a surprising first-round exit against young Dutchman
Igor Sijsling
Igor Sijsling (; born 18 August 1987) is a Dutch former professional tennis player. Sijsling reached his career-high ATP singles ranking of World No. 52 on 17 February 2014. His biggest accomplishment is reaching the final of Australian Open Do ...
. Tsonga then played in the Open 13 in Marseille. In the quarterfinals, he saved five match points to edge
Bernard Tomic
Bernard Tomic (; hr, Bernard Tomić, ; born 21 October 1992) is an Australian professional tennis player whose career-high ranking was world No. 17. As a junior, Tomic enjoyed a successful career in which he won an Orange Bowl title and two ju ...
, and then rolled over his countryman
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
in the semifinals. In the final, Tsonga saved a match point and overcame top seed
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
in three sets for his 10th ATP World Tour title.
![Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - Roland-Garros 2013 - 003](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Jo-Wilfried_Tsonga_-_Roland-Garros_2013_-_003.jpg)
At the
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
, Tsonga gained a decisive straight-set quarterfinal victory against
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
, making Tsonga the first French player to reach the semifinals since
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
in 2008, as well as only the second player after
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
to have beaten Federer at both Wimbledon and the French Open. Tsonga was then defeated in straight sets by
David Ferrer
David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain Davis Cup team, Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP Tour 250, ATP 250, ATP Tour ...
.
Following a run to the semifinals at Queen's, where Tsonga lost to the eventual champion,
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
, Tsonga then competed at Wimbledon, where he was a two-time semifinalist. He retired in the second round against
Ernests Gulbis
Ernests Gulbis (, born 30 August 1988, nicknamed "Lord", "The Gull" or "Ernie") is a Latvian professional tennis player. In 2008, Gulbis won his first ATP Tour doubles title at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, teaming with Rainer Schütt ...
. He missed the entire North American swing, including the
US Open for the second time in four years, due to the injury.
Tsonga then made a comeback at
Metz
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...
, reaching the final but losing to compatriot
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
. At the
2013 BNP Paribas Masters
The 2013 BNP Paribas Masters was a professional men's tennis tournament that was played on indoor hard courts. It was the 41st edition of the tournament, which is part of the 2013 ATP World Tour. It took place at the Palais omnisports de Par ...
, Tsonga was the eighth seed, but lost his first match to
Kei Nishikori
is an inactive Japanese professional tennis player. He is the second male Japanese player to have been ranked in the top 5 in singles (after Jiro Sato), and the only one to do so in the Open Era. Nishikori first reached his career-high singles ...
, thus ruling him out of contention for the
ATP World Tour Finals
The ATP Finals is the season-ending championship of the ATP Tour. It is the most significant event in the annual ATP calendar after the four majors as it features the top-eight singles players and top-eight doubles teams based on their results th ...
and capping off a disappointing season for Tsonga.
2014: Hopman Cup champion, 2nd Masters title, 2nd Davis Cup final
Tsonga started his season winning the
Hopman Cup
The Hopman Cup is an international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament that played mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis.It was held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, before being replaced on the calen ...
with compatriot
Alize Cornet.
In the fourth round of the
2014 Australian Open
The 2014 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place at Melbourne Park between 13 and 26 January 2014. It was the 102nd edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. The tournament consisted of event ...
, he lost to longtime friend and rival
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
in straight sets, despite not dropping a set in the first three rounds. Tsonga's next tournament was the Rotterdam Open. He reached the second round before falling to
Marin Čilić
Marin Čilić (; born 28 September 1988) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Čilić has won 20 ATP Tour singles titles, including a major at the 2014 US Open. He was also runner-up at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and the 2018 Austral ...
in two tight sets. Tsonga reached the final of
2014 Open 13 losing to
Ernest Gulbis. At the
2014 Dubai Tennis Championships, he was defeated by
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
. At the
2014 Indian Wells Masters
The 2014 BNP Paribas Open (also known as the 2014 Indian Wells Masters) was a professional tennis tournament that was played at Indian Wells, California, in March 2014. It was the 41st edition of the men's event (26th for the women), known as the ...
, he suffered a first round exit against
Julien Benneteau
Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...
. He was defeated by
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
in the fourth round of the
2014 Sony Open Tennis
The 2014 Sony Open Tennis (also known as 2014 Miami Masters) was a professional men and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 30th edition of the Miami Masters, and was part of the Masters 1000 category on the 2014 AT ...
.
Tsonga reach in the quarterfinals of the
2014 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters
The 2014 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters was a men's tennis tournament for male professional players, played from 12 April through 20 April 2014, on outdoor clay courts. It was the 108th edition of the annual Monte Carlo Masters tournament, which was ...
but was defeated by
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
. He was defeated by
Santiago Giraldo
Santiago Giraldo Salazar (, born 27 November 1987) is a retired Colombian professional tennis player. He played on the ATP tour and represented Colombia in the Davis Cup competition. His best tournament result is reaching the final in the 20 ...
in the second round of the
2014 Mutua Madrid Open
The 2014 Madrid Open (also known as the Mutua Madrid Open for sponsorship reasons) was a professional tennis tournament that was played on outdoor clay courts at the Park Manzanares in Madrid, Spain from 3–11 May. It was the 13th edition of the ...
in straight sets. He was defeated by
Milos Raonic
Milos Raonic (; sr, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian inactive professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), wh ...
for the first time in three meetings at the Rome Masters third round. In French Open, he made to the fourth round, losing to
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
in straight sets (6–1, 6–4, 6–1).
Tsonga began his grass court season by reaching the 3rd round of the
2014 Aegon Championships
The 2014 Aegon Championships (also known traditionally as the ''Queen's Club Championships'') was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 112th edition of those championships and was part of the ATP World Tour 250 ser ...
. He was stunned by
Marinko Matosevic
Marinko Matosevic ( hr, Marinko Matošević, ; born 8 August 1985) is a retired Australian professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is World No. 39, which he achieved in February 2013. Matosevic defeated top players including ...
in straight sets. He then advanced to the fourth round of Wimbledon after a tricky first and second round against
Jürgen Melzer
Jürgen Melzer (born 22 May 1981) is an Austrian former professional tennis player. Melzer reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8 in April 2011, and a doubles ranking of world No. 6 in September 2010. He has a younger brother, Geral ...
and
Sam Querrey
Samuel Austin Querrey (; born October 7, 1987) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 achieved on February 26, 2018, and won ten ATP singles titles. Known for his powerful serve ...
, both taking him to 5 sets. He fell to two-time champion and longstanding rival Novak Djokovic in straight sets.
Tsonga showed excellent form in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
, winning his second Masters title by defeating
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
in straight sets. Tsonga won the crown capturing four wins over top-10 players, a first at a Masters-1000 event in twelve years. Impressively, Tsonga defeated three of the
Big Four in a single tournament, capturing victories over
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
in the third round,
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
in the quarterfinals, and Federer in the final. His semi-final win was against Wimbledon semi-finalist
Grigor Dimitrov
Grigor Dimitrov ( bg, Григор Димитров, ; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he first achieved on ...
. He was beaten by
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
in the fourth round of
2014 US Open in straight sets.
After that, Tsonga was instrumental in driving the French Davis Cup team into the finals of the
2014 Davis Cup by winning both his singles and doubles matches. He was given the top seed at the
Moselle Open
The Moselle Open (Open de Moselle from 2003 to 2010) is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour from 2003, The venue for the tournament was most recently the Arènes an ...
at Metz, France where he opened his bid for a third title at the tournament by winning in straight sets against
Gilles Müller
Gilles Müller (; born 9 May 1983) is a former professional tennis player from Luxembourg. He is a two-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist and the most successful male tennis player in the history of his country. Müller won two titles on the ATP Wo ...
. He was then defeated by
David Goffin
David Goffin (; born 7 December 1990) is a Belgian professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7. He is currently the Belgian No. 1, and the first Belgian man to be ranked in the top 10. Goffin has won six ATP titles ...
in the quarterfinals.
2015: Fourth Masters final
After a quiet, injury-hit start to the season in which Tsonga did not play at the Australian Open, he began his 2015 campaign at
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, where he beat
Tim Smyczek
Timothy Smyczek ( ; ; born December 30, 1987) is an American former professional tennis player. He made three quarterfinals on the main tour as well as the semi-finals of Newport in 2018. Additionally he won seven Challenger titles. He achieved ...
in his first match, but lost out to compatriot Gael Monfils in the second round. He reached the third round at the next two Masters 1000 events, the
Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters
The Monte-Carlo Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, a commune that borders on Monaco. The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association of Tennis Professiona ...
and the
Mutua Madrid Open
The Madrid Open ( es, Masters de Madrid, link=no), currently sponsored by Mutua Madrileña and known as the Mutua Madrid Open, is a joint men's and women's professional tennis tournament, held in Madrid, during early May. The clay-court event is ...
, losing out to Marin Cilic and Tomáš Berdych respectively.
![TsongaRome2015 (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/TsongaRome2015_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Tsonga reached his second French Open semifinal and sixth overall at Grand Slam tournaments, with wins over fourth seed
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
and fifth seed
Kei Nishikori
is an inactive Japanese professional tennis player. He is the second male Japanese player to have been ranked in the top 5 in singles (after Jiro Sato), and the only one to do so in the Open Era. Nishikori first reached his career-high singles ...
in the fourth round and quarterfinals respectively. In the semifinals, he was defeated by eighth seed and eventual champion
Stan Wawrinka
Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His career highlight ...
, in four close sets.
Tsonga played at the
2015 Wimbledon Championships
Fifteen or 15 may refer to:
*15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16
*one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015
Music
*Fifteen (band), a punk rock band
Albums
* ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005
* ''15'' (Ani Lorak album ...
and won the first two rounds before losing out to Ivo Karlovic in the round of 32 in four sets. He then played for France at the Davis Cup tie against Great Britain; he lost his match against Andy Murray and France went on to lose the rubber 3–1. Tsonga lost to Murray again in the quarterfinals of the
2015 Rogers Cup
The 2015 Rogers Cup presented by National Bank was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 126th edition (for the men) and the 114th (for the women) of the Canadian Open (tennis), Canadian Open, and was part of the ATP World ...
, having previously beaten
Bernard Tomic
Bernard Tomic (; hr, Bernard Tomić, ; born 21 October 1992) is an Australian professional tennis player whose career-high ranking was world No. 17. As a junior, Tomic enjoyed a successful career in which he won an Orange Bowl title and two ju ...
,
Roberto Bautista Agut
Roberto Bautista Agut (; born 14 April 1988) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 9 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in singles, which he first achieved on 4 November 2019.
Bautista A ...
, and
Borna Ćorić
Borna Ćorić (; born 14 November 1996) is a Croatian professional tennis player. On 5 November 2018, he reached his best singles ranking of world No. 12. On 21 August 2022, Ćorić became the lowest-ranked champion in Masters 1000 history when ...
.
Seeded 19th at the
2015 US Open, Tsonga beat
Jarkko Nieminen
Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his caree ...
,
Marcel Granollers
Marcel Granollers Pujol (; ; born 12 April 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 19 in July 2012, and his career-high doubles ranking of world No. 4 in February 2013. Granollers h ...
,
Sergiy Stakhovsky
Sergiy Eduardovych Stakhovsky ( uk, Сергій Едуардович Стаховський, ; born January 6, 1986) is a Ukrainian former professional tennis player. Stakhovsky turned professional in 2003 and played mostly at the Challenger le ...
, and
Benoît Paire
Benoît Paire (; born 8 May 1989) is a French professional tennis player.
His best result in a Grand Slam has been reaching the fourth round, which he has achieved on four occasions. He has won three singles titles, at the 2015 Swedish Open, t ...
to reach his second US Open quarterfinal without dropping a single service game. He then lost to the defending champion
Marin Čilić
Marin Čilić (; born 28 September 1988) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Čilić has won 20 ATP Tour singles titles, including a major at the 2014 US Open. He was also runner-up at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and the 2018 Austral ...
in a tightly contested five-set match. Tsonga came back after losing the first two sets and saved three match points in the fourth to force a decider.
Tsonga won his twelfth singles title and third at the
Moselle Open
The Moselle Open (Open de Moselle from 2003 to 2010) is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour from 2003, The venue for the tournament was most recently the Arènes an ...
in Metz, France with a victory over compatriot
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
in a hard-fought three-set final match. Tsonga entered the
2015 Shanghai Rolex Masters ranked No. 15, and reached the final beating
Kevin Anderson and
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
in the quarterfinals and semifinals respectively. He lost the final to
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
, but despite the loss, re-entered the world's top 10.
2016: Wimbledon and US Open quarterfinals
Tsonga began the 2016 season at the
Auckland tournament. As second seed he was exempt from the first round. He played against German
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber (; born 16 October 1983) is a German former professional tennis player. The right-hander won eight singles and seven doubles titles on the ATP World Tour and made the quarterfinals at the 2012 Wimbledon Cha ...
in the second and won in two sets, followed by a tight two-set victory against
Fabio Fognini
Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. He is currently ranked (July 2022) in 64th place by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
. In the semifinals, he lost in three sets against
Roberto Bautista Agut
Roberto Bautista Agut (; born 14 April 1988) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 9 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in singles, which he first achieved on 4 November 2019.
Bautista A ...
after leading much of the match and missing a match point. He began the
Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...
by winning in four sets against
Marcos Baghdatis
Marcos Baghdatis ( el, Μάρκος Παγδατής, ar, ماركوس بغداتيس; ; born 17 June 1985) is a Cypriot former professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimble ...
, then beat the young Australian
Omar Jasika
Omar Jasika (; born 18 May 1997) is an Australian tennis player. He is the 2014 US Open boys' singles champion defeating Quentin Halys in the final. Jasika along with Naoki Nakagawa also won the 2014 US Open boys' doubles title after defeating ...
in three sets before overcoming compatriot
Pierre-Hugues Herbert
Pierre-Hugues Herbert (; born 18 March 1991) is a French professional tennis player. In doubles, he has completed the Career Grand Slam with titles at the 2015 US Open, the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, the 2018 French Open, the 2021 French O ...
, also in three sets. In the fourth round, he was defeated in three sets by seventh seed,
Kei Nishikori
is an inactive Japanese professional tennis player. He is the second male Japanese player to have been ranked in the top 5 in singles (after Jiro Sato), and the only one to do so in the Open Era. Nishikori first reached his career-high singles ...
.
Tsonga then played in the
2016 Argentina Open, where he was the third seed. Tsonga was beaten in the quarterfinals in straight sets by Spaniard
Nicolás Almagro
Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ch ...
. Following the Argentina Open, he played in the
Rio Open
The Rio Open, also known as the ''Rio Open presented by Claro'' for sponsorship reasons, is a tennis event on the ATP Tour and former WTA International Tournaments event. The tournament is played on outdoor clay courts at the Jockey Club Brasileir ...
, where he was beaten in the first round by No. 338
Thiago Monteiro. Tsonga, along with
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
,
Gilles Simon
Gilles Simon (; born 27 December 1984) is a French former professional tennis player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 6 attained on 5 January 2009. He turned professional in 2002 and won 14 singles titles on the ATP Tour.
...
, and
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
, represented France in the
2016 Davis Cup World Group First round where France beat Canada 5–0. Tsonga played both singles, beating
Frank Dancevic
Frank Russell Dancevic ( ; sr, Френк Расел Данчевић, Frenk Rasel Dančević, ; born September 26, 1984) is a retired Canadian professional tennis player. He first became the country's top singles tennis, singles player, accord ...
(who retired during the match), and doubles alongside
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
, beating the Canadian doubles team in straight sets. Tsonga was the seventh seed at the
Indian Wells Masters
The Indian Wells Masters, also known as the Indian Wells Open and BNP Paribas Open is an annual tennis tournament usually held in early- and mid-March at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, United States. The owner is La ...
tournament and was exempt from the first round. She won his first match, beating countryman
Vincent Millot
Vincent Millot (; born 30 January 1986, in Montpellier, France) is a French former professional tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players eac ...
and then faced 31st seed American
Sam Querrey
Samuel Austin Querrey (; born October 7, 1987) is an American former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 11 achieved on February 26, 2018, and won ten ATP singles titles. Known for his powerful serve ...
, defeating him in straight sets. Tsonga's followed up with a straight sets win against
Dominic Thiem
Dominic Thiem (; born 3 September 1993) is an Austrian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, which he first achieved in March 2020. He is the second-highest r ...
and reached his second quarterfinal at the tournament (the first being in 2013) where he was beaten by No. 1
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
. In the
Miami Masters
The Miami Open (also known as the Miami Masters, and currently branded as the Miami Open presented by Itaú for sponsorship reasons) is a tennis tournament held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is part of the men's ATP Tour Mas ...
, Tsonga was beaten in the third round by
Roberto Bautista Agut
Roberto Bautista Agut (; born 14 April 1988) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 9 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in singles, which he first achieved on 4 November 2019.
Bautista A ...
.
At the
Monte Carlo Masters
The Monte-Carlo Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, a commune that borders on Monaco. The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association of Tennis Professional ...
, Tsonga made it to the semifinals stage, where he was beaten in straight sets by countryman
Gaël Monfils
Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...
. In that quarterfinals, he beat third seed
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
. This was his first top-10 win of the season. It was also the sixth time that he has beaten Federer in 17 matches. Tsonga was scheduled to play in the
Estoril Open, but he withdrew with a knee injury. He played in the
2016 Madrid Open, where he was beaten in straight sets by Canadian
Milos Raonic
Milos Raonic (; sr, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian inactive professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), wh ...
. He withdrew from the
Italian Open with a muscle strain.
Tsonga, the sixth seed, retired with an
adductor muscle injury from his
French Open
The French Open (french: Internationaux de France de tennis), also known as Roland-Garros (), is a major tennis tournament held over two weeks at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, beginning in late May each year. The tournament and ven ...
third-round match against Latvia's
Ernests Gulbis
Ernests Gulbis (, born 30 August 1988, nicknamed "Lord", "The Gull" or "Ernie") is a Latvian professional tennis player. In 2008, Gulbis won his first ATP Tour doubles title at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, teaming with Rainer Schütt ...
when he was leading 5–2 in the first set. This injury also forced Tsonga to pull out of the
2016 Aegon Championships
The 2016 Aegon Championships, also known as the Queen's Club Championships, was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor grass courts. It was the 114th edition of those championships and part of the ATP World Tour 500 series of the 2016 ATP W ...
. Tsonga took part in
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
, where he lost in the quarterfinals to the second seed
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
in five sets, after holding three set points in the first set and having a break point at the start of the final set.
After helping France to a Davis Cup win against the Czech Republic, Tsonga crashed out in the second round of the
Rio Olympics
)
, nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams)
, athletes = 11,238
, events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines)
, opening = 5 August 2016
, closing = 21 August 2016
, opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer
, cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...
. This was followed by a surprise round of 16 loss to
Steve Johnson in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
. The
US Open saw a turn in form for Tsonga, reaching the quarterfinals, following wins against
Guido Andreozzi
Guido Andreozzi (; ; born 5 August 1991) is an Argentine professional tennis player of Italian descent. He competes mainly on the ATP Challenger Tour and ITF Futures, both in singles and doubles. His career-high rankings are World No. 70 in sin ...
,
James Duckworth,
Kevin Anderson and
Jack Sock
Jack Sock (born September 24, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. He has won four career ATP singles titles and 17 doubles titles, and has career-high rankings of world No. 8 in singles (on 20 November 2017) and world No. 2 in dou ...
. Tsonga eventually succumbed to injury and fatigue against
Djokovic, having lost the first two sets comfortably. The final grand slam of the year preceded a quarterfinal appearance in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
, eventually losing in two tight sets to
Bautista Agut, a run to the final in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, falling short against No. 2
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
, and finally a quarterfinal loss to
Milos Raonic
Milos Raonic (; sr, Милош Раонић, Miloš Raonić, ; born December 27, 1990) is a Canadian inactive professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), wh ...
at the
Paris Masters
The Paris Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France. It is played indoors at the AccorHotels Arena, in the neighborhood of Bercy.
The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association o ...
. Tsonga ended the season ranked No. 12.
2017: Inconsistency, four titles and Davis Cup win
At the
Australian Open
The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...
, Tsonga defeated No. 23 seed
Jack Sock
Jack Sock (born September 24, 1992) is an American professional tennis player. He has won four career ATP singles titles and 17 doubles titles, and has career-high rankings of world No. 8 in singles (on 20 November 2017) and world No. 2 in dou ...
and unseeded
Dan Evans in the third and fourth rounds respectively, both in four sets. He then fell to No. 4-seeded
Stan Wawrinka
Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His career highlight ...
in the quarterfinals in straight sets, marking Tsonga's best result at the tournament since his 2013 quarterfinal run.
In February, Tsonga won the
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
singles title, beating
David Goffin
David Goffin (; born 7 December 1990) is a Belgian professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7. He is currently the Belgian No. 1, and the first Belgian man to be ranked in the top 10. Goffin has won six ATP titles ...
in the final in three sets to earn his first ATP World Tour singles title since the
2015 Moselle Open in
Metz
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...
in September 2015. Seven days later, Tsonga won his 14th career (and his second of the year) ATP World Tour singles title by defeating
Lucas Pouille
Lucas Pouille (, born 23 February 1994) is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 10, achieved on 19 March 2018 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 79, achieved on 11 April 2016. ...
in the singles final of the
Open 13
The Open 13 is an annual men's tennis tournament played in Marseille, France. The tournament is an ATP World Tour 250 series event on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour. It is held for one week in February. The number 13 is the INSEE co ...
to become the
Open 13
The Open 13 is an annual men's tennis tournament played in Marseille, France. The tournament is an ATP World Tour 250 series event on the Association of Tennis Professionals tour. It is held for one week in February. The number 13 is the INSEE co ...
singles champion for a record third time.
Struggles with injury and the birth of Tsonga's first child had a significant impact on Tsonga's activity in the ensuing months. A first round loss to
Fabio Fognini
Fabio Fognini (; born 24 May 1987) is an Italian professional tennis player. He has a career-high ranking of world No. 9 achieved on 15 July 2019. He is currently ranked (July 2022) in 64th place by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
in
Indian Wells, withdrawal from the
Miami Masters
The Miami Open (also known as the Miami Masters, and currently branded as the Miami Open presented by Itaú for sponsorship reasons) is a tennis tournament held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is part of the men's ATP Tour Mas ...
, a second round loss in
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
to compatriot
Adrian Mannarino
Adrian Mannarino (born 29 June 1988) is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 22, attained on 19 March 2018. He won his first ATP Tour singles title at the 2019 Rosmalen Open on grass. He is c ...
, a second round withdrawal in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
and withdrawal from the
Rome Masters
The Italian Open ( it, Internazionali d'Italia; literally: ''Italy's Internationals''), originally called the Italian International Championships, is a tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy. It is one of the most important clay tennis tournament ...
were huge setbacks after an exciting start to the year.
However, the end of May saw a return to winning ways for Tsonga as he cruised to a third ATP World Tour singles title of the season in 2017 Lyon Open – Singles, Lyon. Wins over Carlos Berlocq, Karen Khachanov and Nikoloz Basilashvili set up a final against perennial foe
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
. A straight sets win saw Tsonga lift his first career ATP World Tour singles title on clay, as he improved to a 15–11 record in ATP World Tour finals. After struggling to string wins over the summer and the early autumn, Tsonga returned to the winner's circle in October, defeating Diego Schwartzman in straight sets to capture his fourth ATP World Tour singles title of the year at the 2017 European Open – Singles, European Open in Antwerp. In November, Tsonga along with
Lucas Pouille
Lucas Pouille (, born 23 February 1994) is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 10, achieved on 19 March 2018 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 79, achieved on 11 April 2016. ...
,
Pierre-Hugues Herbert
Pierre-Hugues Herbert (; born 18 March 1991) is a French professional tennis player. In doubles, he has completed the Career Grand Slam with titles at the 2015 US Open, the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, the 2018 French Open, the 2021 French O ...
and
Richard Gasquet
Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...
helped France to capture their 10th
Davis Cup
The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...
and first in 16 years. Tsonga won his first singles match against Steve Darcis but lost his second singles match against
David Goffin
David Goffin (; born 7 December 1990) is a Belgian professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is world No. 7. He is currently the Belgian No. 1, and the first Belgian man to be ranked in the top 10. Goffin has won six ATP titles ...
in the 2017 Davis Cup World Group, Davis Cup final against Belgium Davis Cup team, Belgium; France won the tie with a score of 3–2.
2018: Injuries and surgery, out of top 200, fourth Davis Cup final
Tsonga played his first tournament of the year at the 2018 Australian Open – Men's singles, Australian Open, where he defeated the American qualifier Kevin King (tennis), Kevin King in straight sets in the first round. In the second round, Tsonga prevailed over the rising Canadian star Denis Shapovalov after being down 2–5 in the fifth set. In the third round, he
faced Nick Kyrgios, who before the match referred to Tsonga as his 'idol'; Tsonga lost the match in four sets.
Tsonga was called up to play for France in the 2018 Davis Cup World Group first-round tie against Netherlands Davis Cup team, the Netherlands, but he withdrew one day before the start of the first singles match because of a knee injury. At the 2018 Open Sud de France – Singles, Open Sud de France, Tsonga held two match points when he was leading 6–1, 5–3 against
Lucas Pouille
Lucas Pouille (, born 23 February 1994) is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 10, achieved on 19 March 2018 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 79, achieved on 11 April 2016. ...
in the semifinals before Tsonga was forced to retire from the match because of a left hamstring injury with the score at 6–1, 5-5.
The Open Sud de France was Tsonga's second and last ATP World Tour tournament of the first four months of 2018. On 19 March, his ATP rankings, ATP singles rankings fell to world no. 38, his lowest since he was ranked world no. 38 on 14 January 2008. Tsonga pulled out of five ATP World Tour tournaments that were to be held in February, March and April (Rotterdam, Marseille, Indian Wells, Miami and Monte-Carlo) due to injuries. He underwent left knee surgery on 3 April. Tsonga withdrew from the Masters 1000 tournaments in 2018 Mutua Madrid Open, Madrid and 2018 Italian Open (tennis), Rome, the 2018 Lyon Open, Lyon Open and the 2018 French Open, French Open because he had not recovered from his left knee surgery. On 28 May Tsonga was ranked outside the top 50 of the ATP singles rankings for the first time since 22 October 2007 when he was 22 years old. This was still due to his undergoing surgery earlier in the year on 3 April to repair a torn meniscus (anatomy), meniscus in his left knee that resulted in his not playing any tournaments for the next eight weeks. After missing three consecutive grand slam tournaments (French Open, Wimbledon and US Open) for the first time in his career, Tsonga finally made his return to competitive tennis at the ATP Tour 250 tournament in 2018 Moselle Open – Singles, Metz held in September, where he lost his main draw first round match to Peter Gojowczyk. Tsonga won one and lost three singles matches in his next three events in 2018 European Open – Singles, Antwerp, 2018 Erste Bank Open – Singles, Vienna and 2018 Rolex Paris Masters – Singles, Paris. After the Paris Masters, he played just one more match, in the 2018 Davis Cup World Group final against Croatia; he lost the second singles rubber against
Marin Čilić
Marin Čilić (; born 28 September 1988) is a Croatian professional tennis player. Čilić has won 20 ATP Tour singles titles, including a major at the 2014 US Open. He was also runner-up at the 2017 Wimbledon Championships and the 2018 Austral ...
.
2019: Seventeenth and eighteenth titles, Paris quarterfinal
Tsonga began the season with a semifinal appearance at the 2019 Brisbane International – Men's singles, Brisbane Open where he lost to 4th seed Daniil Medvedev. Two weeks later at the 2019 Australian Open – Men's singles, Australian Open, he played world number 1
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
in the second round. He lost in straight sets.
At the 2019 Open Sud de France – Singles, Open Sud de France, Tsonga won his first title since 2017 when he entered the tournament as a wildcard and defeated
Pierre-Hugues Herbert
Pierre-Hugues Herbert (; born 18 March 1991) is a French professional tennis player. In doubles, he has completed the Career Grand Slam with titles at the 2015 US Open, the 2016 Wimbledon Championships, the 2018 French Open, the 2021 French O ...
in the final. He followed this up the next week with a quarterfinal appearance at the 2019 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament – Singles, Rotterdam Open losing to 5th seed Daniil Medvedev.
Tsonga made the third round of 2019 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles, Wimbledon where he played world number 2
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
. He lost in straight sets.
Tsonga defeated world number 8 Karen Khachanov in the second round of the 2019 Citi Open – Men's singles, Washington Open to register his first win over a top-10 player in almost two years. He lost in the next round to 13th seed Kyle Edmund in straight sets.
In September, Tsonga won his second title of the year at the 2019 Moselle Open – Singles, Moselle Open defeating Aljaž Bedene in the final.
Tsonga's last event of the year was the 2019 Rolex Paris Masters – Singles, Paris Masters in October. As a wildcard, he made it to the quarterfinals defeating world number 9 Matteo Berrettini along the way. He played
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
and lost in straight sets.
At the end of 2019, Tsonga's ranking had jumped from 239 at the beginning of the year to 29 at the end.
2020: Inactivity due to COVID-19
Tsonga only played two matches in 2020. The first one came at the 2020 Qatar ExxonMobil Open – Singles, Qatar Open where he went in as the 3rd seed and lost to Miomir Kecmanović in the first round. The second one came at the 2020 Australian Open – Men's singles, Australian Open where he went in as the 28th seed and lost to Alexei Popyrin in the first round.
After the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down tennis in March, Tsonga decided to remain inactive for the rest of 2020 even when tennis came back in August.
2021: More struggles with injuries
Tsonga returned to the tour at the 2021 Open Sud de France – Singles, Open Sud de France where he lost in the first round to Sebastian Korda in straight sets. He recorded his first win of the year at the 2021 Open 13 – Singles, Open 13 where he defeated
Feliciano López
Feliciano López Díaz-Guerra (; born 20 September 1981) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He achieved his career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in March 2015 and doubles ranking of world No. 9 in November 2016.In 2005, López was t ...
in straight sets but lost in the next round to 4th seed Ugo Humbert in straight sets.
At the 2021 Dubai Tennis Championships – Men's singles, Dubai Open, Tsonga sustained an arm injury in his first round match against Malek Jaziri and retired after just six games. The injury would affect his results for the rest of the year.
Tsonga played his last match of the year at 2021 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles, Wimbledon where he lost in the first round in five sets against Mikael Ymer. He was unable to return to action during the season due to injury.
Throughout 2021, Tsonga compiled a win–loss record of 1–8.
2022: Brief return, retirement
![Tsonga RG22 (62) (52144296439)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Tsonga_RG22_%2862%29_%2852144296439%29.jpg)
Tsonga returned to the tour in February at the 2022 Open Sud de France – Singles, Open Sud de France using his protected ranking and won in the first round against Kacper Żuk in straight sets before losing to Filip Krajinović in the next round. He also advanced to the second round in the 2022 Open Sud de France – Doubles, doubles tournament with partner Fabrice Martin by defeating
Lucas Pouille
Lucas Pouille (, born 23 February 1994) is a French professional tennis player. He has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 10, achieved on 19 March 2018 and a career-high ATP doubles ranking of world No. 79, achieved on 11 April 2016. ...
and Albano Olivetti in the first round before succumbing in the following round to Jonathan Erlich and Édouard Roger-Vasselin.
On 6 April 2022, Tsonga announced that he would retire at the 2022 French Open. He played his last match on 24 May against Casper Ruud in the first round, in which he lost in four sets.
Rivalries
Tsonga vs. Djokovic
![Novak Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Novak_Djokovic_and_Jo-Wilfried_Tsonga_2.jpg)
Tsonga's most famous rivalry is perhaps against
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...
. They have met 23 times with Djokovic leading 17–6, including 7–1 in the Grand Slams. Their first meeting was in the final of the 2008 Australian Open – Men's singles, 2008 Australian; Djokovic and Tsonga had defeated the top two players,
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
and
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
in their respective semifinals in straight sets. Djokovic won the final in four sets to claim his first major title. Tsonga then won their next four meetings, before Djokovic stopped the streak at Miami in 2009.
Their next meeting at a Grand Slam was again at the 2010 Australian Open, Australian Open, in the 2010 quarterfinals, exactly two years to the day since Djokovic defeated him to win his first Grand Slam singles title. However, this time it was Tsonga who prevailed, winning in five sets after Djokovic fell ill during the match. It was not until another year and a half until they met again, with the stakes even higher, in the semifinals at 2011 Wimbledon Championships, Wimbledon in 2011, with the winner advancing to his first Wimbledon final. It was their first meeting on grass, and Djokovic prevailed in four sets to advance to his first Wimbledon final, and in the process ending the seven-and-a-half-year reign of
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
and
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
at the top of the rankings. At the 2012 French Open, Tsonga and Djokovic met again in an important match, in the quarterfinals. After losing the first set, he rallied to take the next two sets and held two match points on Djokovic's serve in the fourth set before the Serb fought back to force a tie-break. Despite Tsonga's saving set points in the breaker, Djokovic took one at the third opportunity. This forced a deciding set, which Tsonga lost after more than four hours of play.
They met again two months later at the Tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Olympics, with Tsonga losing in straight sets in the quarterfinals. They met in the final of the 2012 China Open (tennis), 2012 China Open, with Tsonga again losing in straight sets. The pair were drawn in the same pool for the 2012 ATP World Tour Finals. Tsonga lost his first (of three) round-robin matches to Djokovic. It was his fifth loss to Djokovic in 2012.
They then met in the third round of the 2014 Rogers Cup, with Tsonga scoring his first win over Djokovic since the 2010 Australian Open with a straight-set victory. Prior to this victory, he had lost his last nine matches and 18 sets to Djokovic. They met again in the quarterfinals of the 2016 US Open (tennis), 2016 US Open, where Tsonga lost on a retirement after losing the first two sets.
After two-and-a-half-years they met again in the second round of the 2019 Australian Open – Men's singles, 2019 Australian Open, where Djokovic won in straight sets.
Tsonga vs. Federer
Tsonga and
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
have played 18 times, with Federer leading 12–6. They have met six times in Grand Slam tournaments with Federer leading 4–2; including their five-set matches in the quarterfinals of 2011 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles, 2011 Wimbledon and
2013 Australian Open
The 2013 Australian Open was a tennis tournament that took place in Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 to 27 January 2013. It was the 101st edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. The tournament ...
. Tsonga's victory at 2011 Wimbledon saw him become the first man in Grand Slam history to defeat Federer after dropping the first two sets. They have also one Grand Slam semifinal meeting in the
2010 Australian Open, with Federer winning in straight sets.
They have played in the 2011 ATP World Tour Finals – Singles, 2011 ATP World Tour Finals final with Federer winning in three-sets. The pair have also met in two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 finals. The first was in the 2011 BNP Paribas Masters – Singles, 2011 BNP Paribas Masters, with Federer winning his first title in Bercy, and the second was in the 2014 Rogers Cup – Men's singles, 2014 Rogers Cup, with Tsonga winning his second Masters 1000 title.
Their most recent meeting came at the 2019 Halle Open, with Federer defeating Tsonga in 3 tight sets.
Tsonga vs. Big Four
There are a number of achievements that Tsonga has attained over the Big Four (tennis), Big Four of tennis.
* Tsonga,
Tomáš Berdych
Tomáš Berdych (; born 17 September 1985) is a Czech former professional tennis player. His most notable achievement was reaching the final of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships, causing consecutive upsets by defeating top seed and six-time champ ...
and
Stan Wawrinka
Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) singles ranking of world No. 3 for the first time on 27 January 2014. His career highlight ...
are the only people to have beaten all four members of the Big Four at least once at a major.
* Tsonga and
David Nalbandian
David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine retired professional tennis player who played on the ATP Tour from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. He reached the highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006. Nalban ...
are the only two players (other than members of the Big Four) to have beaten three members of it at a single tournament. (Tsonga defeated Djokovic in the round of 16, Murray in the quarterfinals, and Federer in the final to win the 2014 Rogers Cup, 2014 Canada Masters).
* Tsonga is one of seven players to win a tournament in which all members of the Big Four played (2008 Paris Masters).
* Tsonga,
Andy Murray
Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...
and
Juan Martín del Potro
Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...
are the only players to defeat Federer, Nadal and Djokovic at least once while they held the world No. 1 ranking.
Playing style
Tsonga is known for his offensive baseline style of play but is also able to mix his style of play up by rushing to the net. He is also currently one of the very few remaining players who often utilize a serve-and-volley type of play. His movement around the court is considered to be very good, considering his height. Tsonga is also known for his ability to serve well under pressure, having saved 67% of the break points he faced in his career as of today, which ranks him in the 4th position among active players. His two weaknesses are his return of serve and to a lesser extent his backhand.
Serve
Tsonga's serve is one of his fastest, strongest and most dominant shots, mixing both slice and speed, so enabling him to create and win easier points, such as an ace or a one-two-punch. Because of the action of his serve, which is dramatically abbreviated, he does very well to create as much power as he does, with speeds of up to 147 mph (237 km/h).
Surfaces
Tsonga has achieved his best results on hard courts, most notably on the former Plexicushion Prestige surface at the Australian Open, where he made the final in 2008, the semifinals in 2010, and the quarterfinals in 2009, 2013, and 2017. In his career on the ATP circuit, the majority of his final appearances have come on hard courts. On grass, he reached the semifinals at
Wimbledon
Wimbledon most often refers to:
* Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London
* Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships
Wimbledon may also refer to:
Places London
* ...
in 2011 and 2012 and the quarterfinals in 2010 and 2016; he also reached the final of the
Queen's Club Championships
The Queen's Club Championships is an annual tournament for male tennis players, held on grass courts at the Queen's Club in West Kensington, London. The event is part of the ATP Tour 500 series on the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) T ...
in 2011. In general, Tsonga has struggled on clay, although his clay-court skills are improving, as evidenced by his 2012 season, where he reached the quarterfinals at the French Open, 2012 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, Monte-Carlo, and 2012 Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Rome. In 2013, he reached the two first clay court semifinals of his career, first at the 2013 Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, where he lost to
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...
, and at the 2013 French Open, where he lost to
David Ferrer
David Ferrer Ern (; ; born 2 April 1982) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. A three-time Davis Cup champion with Spain Davis Cup team, Spain, Ferrer has won tournaments at all levels on the ATP Tour (ATP Tour 250, ATP 250, ATP Tour ...
after beating No. 3
Roger Federer
Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...
in the quarterfinals. He won his first clay-court tournament at the 2017 Lyon Open.
Ground strokes and net-play
![Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Wimbledon 2011 jump volley](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Jo-Wilfried_Tsonga_Wimbledon_2011_jump_volley.jpg)
Tsonga is known for his aggressive groundstrokes. His forehand and backhand are both effective in setting up points. His powerful, heavy and accurate forehand is his most consistent shot, especially when delivered down the line. Although his backhand is generally not as strong as his forehand during the rallies, he is very capable of hitting attacking shots on his backhand wing. His net play is skillful, especially on attack. He can play both two-handed and one-handed backhand. He added the one-handed backhand to his repertoire midway through 2011, as was evident in his matches against Andy Murray in the final of Queen's Club and against Federer in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Although rarely used as a groundstroke in a neutral rally, it is particularly effective as a passing shot down the line or cross-court.
Equipment
During the off-season in 2009, Tsonga switched rackets from Wilson to Babolat. He was using Babolat AeroPro Drive+ racket, but in July 2018, changed to the Babolat Pure Strike. His strings are LUXiLON Alu Power Rough strings. He is sponsored by Adidas for his attire.
Career statistics
Grand Slam tournament performance timeline
Grand Slam finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
Year-end championship finals
Singles: 1 (1 runner-up)
Masters 1000 finals
Singles: 4 (2 titles, 2 runner-ups)
Doubles: 1 (1 title)
Olympic finals
Men's doubles: 1 (1 silver medal)
Explanatory notes
References
External links
*
Profiles
*
*
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*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsonga, Jo-Wilfried
1985 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Le Mans
Black French sportspeople
French sportspeople of Republic of the Congo descent
French male tennis players
Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite
US Open (tennis) junior champions
French expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland
Olympic silver medalists for France
Olympic tennis players of France
Olympic medalists in tennis
Tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics
Tennis players at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles