It's special when you play Federer in Wimbledon, Djokovic in Australia and Nadal anywhere: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Former World No. 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had announced earlier this year that he would retire from tennis after the 2022 French Open.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has had a memorable career, reaching his first ever final at the 2008 Australian Open, where he lost to Novak Djokovic. He also reached the final of the ATP Finals in 2011 and won two Masters 1000 titles in Paris and Canada.
Reminiscing about his great career and his encounters with the likes of Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer, Tsonga, in an interview with ATP Tennis Radio Podcast, said that every match he played against the Big 3 was special.
"Every match is special. When you play Federer in Wimbledon, it's crazy. When you play Djokovic in Australia in the final, it is special. And of course you play Nadal anywhere, it is special. But, you know, I always try to take every single match as it should be."
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has produced some historically great battles with the Big 3, boasting six wins apiece against Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and four wins against Rafael Nadal.
One of the biggest wins of his career was against Federer in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2011. The Frenchman came back from two sets to love down to upset the Swiss and reach his maiden Wimbledon semifinal.
During the conversation, Tsonga also revealed that he always tried to respect any opponent, regardless of their ranking. He added that he felt like he deserved some of that respect now that he is a lower-ranked player. Tsonga has battled injuries over the past few years and has spent a lot of time on the sidelines, with his ranking dropping to 267 as a result.
"I always try to respect any opponent, because me before to be top-10 and to be a good player, I was 300 in the world, 200, and I think I deserved at this time some respect and for me the best way to respect people is to give everything against them, no matter the name, no matter the place and, yeah, for me it was something important."
The only other active players to achieve this feat are:
•Federer
•Nadal
•Tsonga twitter.com/ciarannewman99…
"It was quite important to be this role model" - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on his legacy
Jo-Wilfried Songa also spoke about how he wanted to leave an impact on the game. The likes of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Nick Kyrgios are players that look up to Tsonga and the Frenchman said he was happy he was able to inspire the next generation.
"I don't know, Gael Monfils said that I was a role model and for me it was quite important to be this role model. Today I have some player like Felix Auger-Aliassime, I insipred those guys and I inspired guys like Nick Kygrios, they are completely different. It mean I had a little bit of them, you know, in me and just an honor, you know."
Super Tsonga! 💪
@tsonga7 | @OpenParcARA | #OpenParc https://t.co/WZvYc9Lzfy
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