Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is a Top10 tennis player. He is known for his athleticism and his huge game with which he can beat anybody in the world on a good day!
Check Out This Incredible Point From Tsonga!
Biography
Tsonga was born in 1985 in Le Mans, France and turned pro in 2004 at the age of 19. His incredible talent was already visible in his junior career during which he won the US Open Juniors title in 2003 and was ranked as high as number 2 in the world!
Injuries held him back in his first two years on tour but since then he has moved on to becoming one of the stars in today’s game. His career high ranking is currently number 5 in the world as of June 2012.
Highlights have been reaching the finals of the Australian Open in 2008, the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2010 and the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 2011
Game Analysis
Tsonga has a huge game with weapons to beat any player in the world on any given day.
Let’s start with the technical analysis!
Technical
Forehand
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga hits a great forehand. He regularly dictates points with this shot and can hit winners from all over the court.
He has a short compact motion and uses the entire body to generate tons of power. He also makes great use of the stretch shortening cycle of the forearm muscles. Overall a great forehand to model!
Here You Can See Tsonga’s Short Compact Motion
Simply A Great Forehand!
Backhand
Tsonga has a solid backhand. He has a good grip and a nice inside-out swing pattern. Nevertheless, he does not have quite the power and capabilities on his backhand that someone like Djokovic has for example.
The reason for that in my opinion is that he does not make great use of the lower body. He tends to arm the shot a little bit and does not load and unload his legs enough.
Slice
Tsonga does not hit a whole lot of slice backhands but when he does they are solid but not super effective. At times he uses the slice on short balls to come forward and at other times he uses it to defend when he can’t hit the topspin backhand.
Volleys
Jo-Wilfried is not afraid to come to the net. He regularly follows up his strong shots and does a pretty good job at finishing points. He has great touch around the net, which shows when he hits half-volleys and drop shots for example.
His forehand volley is very good. His racket face is only slightly open and he has a very good hitting arm position, moving the racket forward on a rather straight line. He is very capable of sticking the volley and finishing points with it even from slightly difficult situations!
On his backhand volley Tsonga has a tendency to move the racket downward too much with a slightly open racket face, which tends to result in floating the volley a bit too much.
Have A Look At This Backhand Volley In Slow Motion:
The Racket Face Is A Bit Too Open And Moves Downward A Lot
Serve
Tsonga has a huge serve. He regularly serves over 120mph and if his first serve percentage is high he is very tough to break.
Have A Look At Tsonga Putting On A Serving Clinic
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s service motion is very fluid and he definitely gets the key body positions right. He could possibly serve even a little bit bigger if he would turn away from the target a bit more, creating more of a separation angle between his hips and shoulders.
Overall a very good serve!
Tactical
Jo-Wilfried plays an aggressive game. He hits huge serves and forehands and at times he can also hit winners with the backhand. Additionally, he is not afraid to come to the net and finish off points there. He also mixes in some surprise serve-and-volley every now and then, which I think is a very good idea.
Nevertheless, he has a tendency to overdo such things as serve-and-volley, drop shots and it appears as if he plays too much for the crowd instead of going for the high percentage play on big points!
Overall he has a good game plan though and should certainly stick with it in my opinion.
Physical
Tsonga is definitely one of the best athletes that professional Tennis has ever seen. He is tall, agile and strong, which is a deadly combination. This is by far the strongest part of his game even though the other parts are certainly not weak!
Mental
The mental area seems to be the only area that is still holding Tsonga back a little bit. He does not get overly upset on the court and usually does not loose his cool.
Nevertheless, he appears to get nervous and slightly tight in close matches in the Grand Slams. In those situations he tends to suffer from poor shot selection and sometimes also makes easy mistakes
I believe that he does not quite have the self-confidence and belief that he is capable of beating Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic in the most important matches.
Ranking
I would rank Tsonga’s skills in the following order:
1. Physical
2. Technical
3. Tactical
4. Mental
Conclusion
Tsonga is already one of the best players on the tour and he has contended for Grand Slam titles. Nevertheless, I believe that with his game and capabilities he could have achieved a bit more already.
He tends to get nervous in those big matches against Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. My guess is that he does not quite have the belief that he is as good as these guys and that holds him back a little whenever he gets close in those Grand Slams.
Possibly a good mental coach could help him bring out his best Tennis when it matters most!
Additionally, his backhand could be slightly better in my opinion if he would involve the lower body more.
Overall Tsonga certainly has the game to win Grand Slams and I think he will most likely win one in the next couple of years.
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