2015 Player Preview: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

I know am not the only one who misses the Jo-Wilfried Tsonga from the 2008 Australian Open who burst onto the tennis scene with a magnetic personality, a likeable arrogance and a game to match. When he defeated Rafael Nadal 6-2 6-3 6-2 in the semi finals that year, people thought they were watching the emergence of the new star of men’s tennis.

There is no glaring weakness in him game. In my eyes he is just slightly short across the board.

Tsonga actually dispatched Andy Murray in the first round this year, but nobody expected him to take the tournament by storm as he did. He blew Nadal off court that day, an achievement that the majority of players do not have the requisite fire power for. Tsonga displayed all the skills needed to win majors; speed, power and confidence.

Now 29 years old, we still haven’t seen Tsonga return to this level of play and aside from a few big performances, he hasn’t come all that close. Whilst being down at 12 in the rankings is not terrible by any means, for a man who was tipped to break the dominance of the Big Four, it is hard to not be disappointed when analysing Tsonga’s career.

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One of the biggest factors in the Frenchman’s career has been his inability to find a coaching set-up that maximised his talents. Currently he is with Nicolas Escude and Thierry Ascione, but for along time he played on the tour without a coach. Occasional one handed back hands out of the blue is the result of this lack of direction.

Tsonga clearly wanted to play with the freedom of his 2o08 self (which is clear when you watch the highlights below) and thought working without a coach would give him this. In fact, it is probably a combination of success and age that has made his game less free flowing. As he gets older he loses the unbeatable, almost arrogant mindset that marked him out before.

It is fair to say that if you were Tsonga’s coach, it still wouldn’t be an easy task to turn him into a Grand Slam winner. There is no glaring weakness in him game. In my eyes he is just slightly short across the board. His serve is great, but not the best. He moves well, but also, not the best. Other players are doing things just that little bit better.

I think we have seen the best of Tsonga in his career and it pains me to say that given the potential he seemed to have at the start of his career. He has produced some fantastic matches and reached a career high of 5 in the world back in 2012, but I think the Frenchman is now on the decline. Nevertheless, it doesn’t stop Tsonga being great to watch:

Ranking Prediction: 16th

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