{"id":49689,"date":"2022-05-24T16:21:05","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T20:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=49689"},"modified":"2022-05-24T16:21:05","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T20:21:05","slug":"five-best-moments-of-jo-wilfried-tsonga-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2022\/05\/24\/five-best-moments-of-jo-wilfried-tsonga-career\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Best Moments of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga&#8217;s Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played the last match of his career at <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/french-open\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Roland Garros<\/a> on Tuesday, losing to Casper Ruud 7-6 6-7 2-6 6-7. The Frenchman was about to serve for the fourth set when he suffered a shoulder injury, leaving him barely able to continue (won just one of the next twelve points). What followed was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rYbebhy5Uoo\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tear-jerker of a retirement ceremony<\/a> with many of his colleagues attending, a brigade of former coaches, and his biggest rivals wishing him farewell on video. Let&#8217;s delve into the best five moments of his career, the moments that made Jo-Wilfried Tsonga the legend that he is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4>Australian Open 2008<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ranked World No. 38 when the tournament began, Tsonga definitely wasn&#8217;t mentioned among the title contenders. Especially as he got a nightmare opening-round draw &#8211; Andy Murray, who was already a top 10 player back then. But Tsonga would go on to have a breakout run, which featured three more wins of great quality &#8211; over 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny, 8th seed Richard Gasquet, and the most important one, over 2nd seeded Rafael Nadal.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Rafael Nadal | Australian Open 2008 Semifinal\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8TG7tDZO3pA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Tsonga dropped merely seven games in an absolutely unbelievable display of attacking tennis, constantly pressuring the Spaniard with huge forehands and net approaches. The shotmaking was just absurd and while he ended up losing to Novak Djokovic in the final, at that point everyone was already convinced that the Frenchman will feature in the latter stages of Grand Slam tournaments for years to come. This was the moment when Tsonga became a truly elite player.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4>Wimbledon 2011<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Besides the Australian Open 2008, Tsonga made five other Grand Slam semifinals. Why did I choose to include this one and not any of the other four? At the last eight stage, the Frenchman achieved an uncanny feat. He faced the winner of six of the previous eight editions, Roger Federer, and went down two sets to love. The Swiss great had never lost from such a position in a Major before (178-0) and with the match being played on the court where he was at his most dangerous, it seemed like Tsonga&#8217;s chances to complete the comeback were next to none.<\/p>\n<p>But in stunning fashion, Tsonga did the unthinkable and threw Federer out of the tournament 3-6 6-7 6-4 6-4 6-4. Up to this day, only two more players managed to defeat the 20-time Major champion from two sets to love down in a Grand Slam event (Novak Djokovic and Kevin Anderson). The Frenchman would go on to play a great match against the former of these two in the semifinals, losing in four sets.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-_bFrrDmG4M<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s also worth mentioning that of the Big Four, Tsonga had his best matchup against Federer, winning in 6 out of 18 attempts (although before this Wimbledon clash, he was down 1-4). The two would go on to form a brilliant rivalry in the latter half of 2011, dominating the indoor season and meeting in the finals at Bercy and at the ATP World Tour Finals.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4>London Olympics 2012<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>During the 2012 London Olympics, Tsonga fell in the quarterfinals of the singles event. Somewhat unexpectedly, he went further in the doubles, teaming up with Michael Llodra. In the semifinals, they scored a thriller-like 6-3 4-6 18-16 win against David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez. While they weren&#8217;t able to defeat the Bryans in the final, the silver medal was already secured.<\/p>\n<p>Held on the grass courts at Wimbledon that year, the Olympics meant a lot to Tsonga, who wrote<a href=\"https:\/\/www.itftennis.com\/en\/news-and-media\/articles\/my-olympic-memory-jo-wilfried-tsonga\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> this for the ITF website in 2019<\/a>: &#8220;Frankly, I think winning a medal is something apart. Thanks to it I really feel I\u2019m bound with the sports family. When you play tennis you sometimes feel that you\u2019re put aside\u2026 In our sport the business side has taken so much importance nowadays: there\u2019s a lot of money involved, a lot of things, and I think that with the Olympics you go back to basics, to the game, and to the sportsmanship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4>Toronto 2014<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Tsonga won two ATP Masters 1000 titles and while the first one is usually the more memorable one, that&#8217;s not the case here. The 2014 Rogers Cup is remembered as one of the best single event performances of any player, period. It started with two victories over fellow Frenchmen, Jeremy Chardy and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, before it rapidly got a lot more serious.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jo-Wilfried Tsonga&#039;s INCREDIBLE Title Run | Toronto 2014 Highlights\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3_1G2hcEaNU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Tsonga took out Djokovic 6-2 6-2, before making another upset over Murray in the quarterfinals. His only previous ATP 1000 title included one member of the Big Four (Djokovic), this one had not just two, but three. That&#8217;s right, Federer was the final boss awaiting him in the championship match at Toronto. In a thrilling encounter, Tsonga completed this unbelievable set of performances with a 7-5 7-6 victory, one of six times he managed to defeat his Swiss rival.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4>Davis Cup 2017<\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As there are no ranking points, some players aren&#8217;t as focused on and willing to play Davis Cup ties for their country. That wasn&#8217;t the case with Tsonga, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.daviscup.com\/274851?channel=daviscupnews\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said this a month before France&#8217;s final against Belgium in 2017<\/a>. &#8220;That\u2019s all we\u2019re playing for. I don\u2019t know anyone who is playing for anything other than such a prestigious goal,\u201d said the Frenchman. \u201cAll the best players have [won Davis Cup]\u2026 and they all fell to their knees when they won, no matter the opponent. Yes, I\u2019ve been thinking about it. Whenever we think about it, the adrenaline starts pumping. It\u2019s a great feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"main\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope\">Tsonga had some bitter memories connected to Davis Cup finals already. Back in 2010, he had to pull out of it due to a knee injury, and could merely watch as his teammates went up 2-1 against Serbia, only for Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki to complete the comeback. In 2014, the Frenchman lost to Stan Wawrinka in the first match of the tie against Switzerland but had to be subbed by Richard Gasquet due to an arm injury. France lost 1-3.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<footer>\n<div class=\"footer\">\n<div class=\"footer-sponsors\">Then finally, 2017 was the campaign where everything worked out. Tsonga scored two singles wins in the semifinals against Serbia (over Laslo Djere and Dusan Lajovic), before finally being in full health for the last tie against Belgium. The Frenchman lost to David Goffin, but beat Steve Darcis, watching his friend Lucas Pouille demolish the latter in the fifth and decisive rubber.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/footer>\n<p><em>Main Photo from Getty.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played the last match of his career at Roland Garros on Tuesday, losing to Casper Ruud 7-6 6-7 2-6 6-7. The Frenchman was about to serve for the fourth set when he suffered a shoulder injury, leaving him barely able to continue (won just one of the next twelve points). What followed was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2968,"featured_media":49670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2,5,9],"tags":[16,230,2070,17124,3187,314,4775,22,135,190,114],"class_list":["post-49689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atp","category-featured","category-french-open","category-news","tag-andy-murray","tag-david-goffin","tag-dusan-lajovic","tag-edouard-roger-vasselin","tag-jeremy-chardy","tag-jo-wilfried-tsonga","tag-laslo-djere","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-rafael-nadal","tag-richard-gasquet","tag-roger-federer"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2968"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}