CC courtesy of Marianne Bevis at Flickr.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s 2015 campaign took a while to get started, but his first match of the year, a three set defeat of Tim Smyczek in the second round of the Miami Open, finally got things going. Tsonga’s return was well worth the wait, too, and tennis is all the better for his return for five good reasons.
Entertainment:
Few players on the ATP Tour play with as much variety as Tsonga. The Frenchman can strike winners with his forehand down the line, can hit back hand winners on the run, can step inside the court and dictate, can finish points of at the net, can hit aces.
What is more, in the course of a match, he will most likely entertain us and perform all of them.
He plays to win:
One thing that makes Tsonga such a joy to watch is he plays to win. The Frenchman never lets an opportunity to move forward and finish the point inside the court pass him, even if he might get passed doing so. He is a risk taker, whether it is the opening point, or he is match point down.
That quality was on show in his match against Smyczek. His winner count was 30, while his error count was 36. The two being so close together reflects his aggressive approach to winning, an aspect of his game which makes him so easy to cheer for.
His serve
Tsonga has one of the best serves in the game, especially his second serve, and when he faces a good returner, he can ace his way out of trouble.
When you watch Tsonga, you know his opponents will have to play their best to beat him. Breaking the Tsonga serve is tough, and so they will have to serve and return at their best which often results in a high quality match, and Tsonga has been involved in some classics.
A good example of the strength of his serve is the way he dealt Djokovic one of his heaviest defeats on hard courts last year in Canada. The Frenchman dropped just four games on his way to stunning the world No.1, and his serve simply overwhelmed the game’s best returner.
Tsonga went on to beat Dimitrov, Murray and Federer on his way to the ATP 1000 title, his serve a huge factor in that run.
Check out the video below to see Tsonga serve his way out of trouble against Djokovic in Marseille 2009.
He fights
Tsonga’s fight against Smyczek was typical of the Frenchman. This is the man who came back from two sets to love down to beat Federer at Wimbledon in 2011.
Watch highlights of Tsonga’s comeback victory against Federer at Wimbledon 2011 below.
He has that celebration dance
Words cannot do it justice. See for yourself below (from 00:19).
Watch highlights of Tsonga’s win over Smyczek below.
Commentary by Christian Deverille
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