Not even a collection of Grand Slam titles and a monopoly on the sport more
protracted than that of Pete Sampras or Roger Federer would allow
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to contemplate referring to himself as The Greatest. Such
boldness is not for normal men, not even those who stand on the brink of a
Grand Slam title that would come at the climax of an astounding
fortnight-long performance heralded by former champions as the most exciting
and unexpected breakthrough at a Grand Slam tournament since Sampras at the
US Open of 1990.
However, the legend that is Muhammad Ali is more than just an inspiration to
the young Frenchman, to whom he bears a decent resemblance. Should Tsonga
beat hot favourite Novak Djokovic in this morning’s Australian Open final,
which is being heralded as a changing of the guard in men’s tennis, he
believes that he could transfer a dusting of the Ali magic from the boxing
ring to the tennis court.
Tsonga’s father, Didier, once an Olympic handball player for the Democratic
Republic of Congo, was a youthful spectator at that momentous fight in
Kinshasa more than 33 years ago when Ali recaptured the world heavyweight
crown from George Foreman.
He even passed on a photograph he took of the Rumble in the Jungle to his
impressionable young son, who in the eyes of many has floated like a
butterfly and stung like a bee through the first six rounds of the
Australian Open.
Ali is the nickname that has been affixed to Tsonga throughout the tournament.
He has celebrated each victory with a dance that is not as unique as the Ali
Shuffle but is still intoxicating. He has even usurped Djokovic as the
event’s favoured entertainer, his joyous jigs grabbing more attention than
the Serb’s selection of impersonations of the serving styles of Maria
Sharapova, Andy Roddick, Fernando Gonzalez, Rafael Nadal and Federer.
Tsonga revels in the limelight: “Maybe I have his [Ali’s] personality on the
court. I am thinking about him more and more. I have watched DVDs of him.
Maybe I think I have the same tennis as his boxing.”
But does the unseeded 22-year-old have what it takes to carry on where he left
off with his annihilation of Nadal in the semi-finals and pound Djokovic
into submission to become the first French men’s champion of Australia since
the Bounding Basque, Jean Borotra, in 1928?
It is a long way, geographically and chronologically, from a week in south
London seven months ago that Tsonga and his coach, Eric Winogradsky,
consider as formative to his career as anything that has happened at
Melbourne Park in these past two weeks.
Like any self-respecting Frenchman during the second week of Roland Garros,
Tsonga yearned to be competing on the Parisian clay rather than the damp
turf of Surbiton’s Berry-lands. To say that the Surbiton crowds can be
counted on the fingers of two hands is an overstatement. “It was a sad
situation for me because I wanted to be at the big tournament in my country,
not the small one in England,” he says. “But now I am here doing what I have
done, so maybe it was a good choice for me.”
He not only won the Surbiton Trophy and pocketed the winner’s cheque of
£3,600, he also found time to drive across the Thames three days running to
qualify for the Artois Championships at Queen’s Club, where he reached the
third round. “In total, he played 12 matches in 10 or 11 days, which gave
him a lot of confidence. That was the week when his career really changed
course in the direction we are now heading,” says Winogradsky, who began
coaching the muscular right-hander five years ago.
The experience, added to a notable straight-sets second-round win over
four-times Queen’s champion Lleyton Hewitt, convinced Tsonga that he was
again competitive after a herniated disc in his lower back had halted his
progress following an exemplary junior career. “He always wanted to be the
complete player,” says Winogradsky. “From the beginning he wanted to be able
to play from anywhere on the court. He knew it would take a lot of time to
do that, but he’s still very young, and what has happened here is such good
news.”
Loyalty is clearly a quality that Tsonga values highly. Over the past couple
of years the multi-millionaire French industrialist Arnaud Lagardere has
funded a squad independent of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) and based
next to Roland Garros in Paris’s Stade Jean-Bouin. He lured Patrice
Hagelauer, the former performance director of Britain’s Lawn Tennis
Association, and also boasts Richard Gasquet, Australian Open doubles
finalists Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement, Fabrice Santoro and Amelie
Mauresmo among his collection of players. Tsonga was invited, but he took
the view that the FFT supported him through his 18 months of enforced
inactivity and he feels a debt that needs to be repaid.
Today he stands to pocket £650,000 by beating third-seeded Djokovic, who
brilliantly ended Federer’s tournament in Friday’s semi-final and showed
that he has matured immensely from the player who squandered a great
opportunity to take what might have been a decisive early lead in last
September’s US Open final.
Djokovic, too, has come a long way from the player who was rumoured to be
seeking tennis “asylum” in Britain nearly two years ago. After the failure
of Ana Ivanovic in the women’s final against Maria Sharapova, he still
stands to become the first Serbian Grand Slam singles champion.
Unlike his more robustly built opponent this morning, Djokovic had not dropped
a set in the tournament and rarely looked anything other than a potential
champion. But, like everyone else, he has been entranced by the Tsonga
performance. “It’s amazing for the sport,” says the 20-year-old. “The
dominance of Federer and Nadal was amazing for the past couple of years, but
to see something new is great for tennis lovers around the world.
“Every sport is waiting to have some new faces. Tsonga is coming up. He’s an
amazing athlete who has played some impressive tennis these past two weeks.
It’s going to be very interesting to see us two youngsters playing against
each other.”
It is not the final most people expected, but it has created more excitement
and speculation than the familiar prospect of another intense struggle
between Federer and Nadal.
Of course the Swiss king and the Majorcan prince have not been dethroned
permanently; they will return to fight many a great bout. For the time
being, however, the tennis world savours the thought of this look to the
future.
The men in the final
NOVAK DJOKOVIC
Born: Belgrade, Serbia
Lives: Monte Carlo
Age: 20
Height: 6ft 3in
Weight: 176lb
Turned pro: 2003
ATP ranking: 3
Titles: 7
Prize-money: $4,818,550
This is Djokovic’s first tournament of 2008 n He has won 121 matches and lost
51 nFinished 2007 as youngest player in the Top 10 n Reached his fi rst Grand
Slam fi nal, losing to Roger Federer in the US Open after having seven set
points n Won his fi rst ATP title in 2006, at Amersfoort, Metz n Nicknamed
Nole n Father, Srdjan, and mother, Dijana, own a pizzeria and pancake
restaurant on a mountain in Serbia n Father, uncle and aunt were all
professional skiers n Speaks Serbian, Italian, German and English
JO-WILFRIED TSONGA
Born: Le Mans, France
Lives: Le Mans
Age: 22
Height: 6ft 2in
Weight: 200lb
Turned pro: 2004
ATP ranking: 38
Titles: 0
Prize-money: $484,813
Tsonga lost in the fi rst round in Sydney, but progressed to the semifi nals in
Adelaide, losing to Jarkko Nieminen n Prior to the Australian Open he had
won 19 matches and lost 15 n Reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2007
and won four Challenger titles, but has yet to win an ATP Tour title n He fi
nished 2003 as No 2 junior in world n Tsonga has a French mother, Evelyne,
and a Congolese father, Didier, who moved to France in the 1970s to play
handball. Both his parents now work as teachers in France. Tsonga has an
older sister, Sasha, and a younger brother, Enzo, who is a part of the
French junior basketball programme
