2020 has not been the year for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The 35-year-old could not play the Australian Open 2020 due to a back injury. He did not recover back in time, which denied him a ticket for the French Open 2020.
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The former World No.5 had a dream start to his career. He had received the ATP Newcomer of the year award in 2007. Unfortunately, his career hasn’t reached the place he wanted it to go.
In a recent interview, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga talked about the two biggest regrets in his tennis career so far. They certainly were the most important matches that he wanted to win but was not able to finish on the winning side. The first one was the final of the Australian Open 2008, and the second one was the quarter-final in the French Open 2012.
Australian Open 2008 Final: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v Novak Djokovic
Nobody expected Tsonga to be there. He was an unseeded player. He had entered the final after defeating World No.2 Rafael Nadal in the semi-final of the tournament. The 35-year-old clearly regrets not winning the Grand Slam after playing so well in the tournament.
“I beat Djokovic five times in a row afterward. But I lost this first match, this final. This match will leave me with regrets because winning a grand slam changed things a lot,” said Tsonga in the interview.
Djokovic had not lost a set in the tournament until that match. He was World No.3, but Tsonga had won the very first set of the match, breaking Djokovic’s streak. He could not capitalize on the lead and lost the next three sets. This was Djokovic’s first Grand Slam title out of the current 17. On the contrary, it proved to be the only Grand Slam final that Tsonga has played so far.
“It’s useless to talk about the things that did not happen, but I have the feeling that this would have changed enormously the sequence of events,” admitted the Frenchman.
French Open 2012 Quarter-Final: Djokovic v Tsonga yet again
It was yet another encounter with Djokovic. Tsonga had reached the quarters by defeating the likes of Fabio Fognini and Stan Wawrinka. After losing the first set, the Frenchman won two back-to-back sets, exposing Djokovic completely. The fourth set went on a tie-breaker in which he managed to earn four match points. Djokovic survived them all and won the next game as well.
“It is one of the most beautiful memories of tennis that I have had, thanks to the atmosphere in the stadium and my level of play which was great. I would have liked to know what would have happened if I had won this meeting where I have match points. I was playing extremely well,” acknowledged Tsonga.
Regrets are a part of the sport. But it is equally important to learn lessons from them and proceed ahead. Tsonga even remarked that had he done some things differently, he could have gone far in many Grand Slam events.
“There are a lot of things that I could regret. There are things going on two or three times a year that I wish I had seen done differently. Out of the 30 or so times, I did a second week in a Grand Slam, sometimes I didn’t get that far,” concluded the 35-year-old.
