Jo-Wilfried Tsonga - Prepared for tennis retirement
In an interview with Ouest-France , Jo-Wilfried Tsonga talks about the current situation, the goals for the autumn of his career and a possible end to it.
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit: Apr 17, 2020, 03:45 pm
Almost 16 years have passed since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated the number six in the world at the time, Carlos Moya, in his first match in the main round of an ATP tour event. 16 years in which the Frenchman was not idle, today can look back on 18 titles, over 22 million US dollars in prize money and a career high from fifth place in the world rankings. 16 years, but they have also left their mark on the 34-year-old's thoughts about ending their careers.
"I retire more than when I started my career. Of course I'm ready today. Simply because my body tells me that accepting the stresses of my sport will come to an end. I'm prepared for it," explains the current number 49 in the ATP world rankings in an interview with Ouest France . He is interested in many things besides tennis, including being an entrepreneur. "But I remain fully committed to my tennis career. I hope to be able to return to the high level and to feel the emotions I felt in the past one last time," said Tsonga.
The 34-year-old still has one goal in mind: "The Olympic Games could be a last big goal that could inevitably lead to other goals. To be part of the Olympics, you have to be in the top 30, so for me it means that I have to have a good tournament time, "explains Tsonga. A tournament time that cannot be thought of at the moment, the ATP tour is currently interrupted due to COVID-19. "The main problem we have today is knowing when we will start work again. The most important thing is that we continue in good conditions. For me, the season is lost. And resuming somewhere in January would not be bad "says the Frenchman.
Tournament series for players in difficulty?
However, Tsonga is already preparing for an early end to the 2020 game season and is working on a project with his coach, Thierry Ascione, should the tour not be resumed: "We are thinking of a project in which the best French players have tournaments in France play and donate the tournament's prize money and all proceeds to a solidarity fund to help those who are most in difficulty, "said Tsonga. Because with the interruption there are many problems for the players further down in the rankings - the inequality in tennis would now be particularly visible.
"We will end up with players who hoped to climb the rankings going bankrupt because they won't have enough resources to pay their coaches, resources to travel to the tournaments," predicts the Australian Open finalist from 2008. But now is the opportunity to rethink this and find ways to remove these problems from the world, says Tsonga. "Of course, in the best of all worlds, the goal would be to unite everyone."