Jo-Wilfried Tsonga suffered a three-set defeat at the ATP-500 tournament in the Vienna Stadthalle on Tuesday evening. Against Sam Querrey the Frenchman lost 3:6, 6:3, 3:6 and missed a second round duel with Dominic Thiem. Now he stands before a long way back into the top of the world.
“Tsonga is one of the best players of the last decade, just behind the big four he was probably the best,” said Thiem about the man from Le Mans. “He’s always a good tennis player.”
Austria’s number one had to experience this for himself. The two have faced each other twice on the ATP tour so far, both times Tsonga prevailed. In the quarter-finals of Vienna five years ago, the Frenchman won Thiem’s first high-calibre game on the ATP Tour only in the tiebreak of the third set.
“The atmosphere in this match made my knees fully shudder,” recalled Thiem, who was still playing mainly on the Challenger tour at the time. “I’ll never forget that feeling and I’ll carry it with me to this day.”
There will be no rematch of the two now, Querrey was too strong for Tsonga on Tuesday. “I’m looking forward to seeing him fit again on the court. He will certainly improve again in the near future,” said the US American directly after the game.
He is referring to the season of Tsongas, which was plagued by several injuries. A look at the list of reasons for abandonment in 2018 reveals the physical problems of “Ali”, as Tsonga is often called: Left wrist, left thigh, plus two operations on the left knee.
The injuries caused the 16-time tournament winner to slip out of the top 100 of the world rankings for the first time in twelve years. Only last week he celebrated his first victory in more than seven months, when he reached the second round in Antwerp.
However, Tsonga’s tournament victory there last year and his subsequent appearance in the final in Vienna mean that he loses even more points, and he will even be ranked beyond the top 250 next Monday.
While he was entitled to play due to an exception of the ATP (Commitment Player Regulation) in Vienna through his year-end ranking from last season, he has to hope for a wild card at the Masters in Paris. According to tennisnet information, Tsonga does not plan to use its basically available Protected Ranking of 19th place for the time being.
Official confirmation is still pending, but Paris tournament director Guy Forget is unlikely to think twice about a Wild Card as the 2008 winner and local hero.
After the Masters, Tsonga could still get into position for the Davis Cup final against Croatia. “I’d be delighted to be nominated,” said Tsonga. “The Davis Cup is very dear to my heart and I experienced many beautiful but also painful moments there.”
And continues: “Now it’s a matter of doing a lot of work and delivering corresponding results. I have to believe that my body is ready to win three sets.”
But also Tsongas compatriots had to fight in the last weeks and months. For the first time in more than twelve years, the great tennis nation France has not had a single top-20 player in the men’s singles.
“Don’t write us off too fast,” said a slightly stressed Tsonga. “When we had four players in the first ten, everyone thought it was normal. But it wasn’t.” Tsonga, for example, referred to Ugo Humbert, who improved noticeably with a Challenger title. “There’s continuity, there’s a lot of French in the top 100, there’s nothing alarming.”
Also for Tsonga personally the way seems to be right. In his match against Querrey in the second set he reminded a bit of the old Tsonga, who was already the number five in the world in 2012. “It’s a long way to go, but the first few miles are behind me.”