The former world number 5 and long number 1 French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga announced, Wednesday April 6, in video posted on social media, that he would retire in 2022 after the Roland-Garros tournament. He will then be 37 years old.
“A few weeks ago I decided that I was going to stop at Roland this year. This will be my 15and Roland »explained the player, fell back to 220and world rank and coming off four years plagued by injuries.
It is with great emotion that I announce today my decision to end my professional career during the… https://t.co/wKVzmQIfpL
With eighteen titles, including two Masters 1000, Manceau is the second most sacred Frenchman behind Yannick Noah since the beginning of the professional era. He has often come close to the stars in Grand Slams, but without managing to be the first Frenchman to win a major title since Noah’s coronation at Roland-Garros in 1983.
“What a run [quel parcours] ! Thanks for everything, Joe! »reacted the ATP (the Association of Tennis Professionals) on Twitter. The French Tennis Federation has, for its part, given “see you at Roland-Garros to vibrate one last time together”.
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“My abilities to surpass myself are no longer there”
“It took me a long time to make this decision. Every day for several years, there is a moment in the day when I say to myself “what am I doing, why am I hurting myself like this, is there still a reason to I make all this effort?” »explains the Manceau, comfortably installed on a sofa, with his wife by his side.
My head tells me, “you can play all your life”, but the body reminds me that my abilities to surpass myself are no longer there. My body tells me “you are no longer able to go further than what I give you”. Before, that’s what I did every day.
“The ultimate reason is to tell me, it’s the last thrill”he underlines in reference to Roland-Garros.
In 2008, an unknown 22-year-old child prodigy
I hope that by then I will stay in good shape and be able to be who I have always been in this tournament. The goal is to be myself, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga the tennis player. I’ve always wanted to be efficient, to set myself goals at the top. This will be the opportunity to do it one last time.
For Tsonga, it all started in Melbourne. In January 2008, this unknown 22-year-old changed everything in his path to reach the Australian Open final. “I was not in my world. I was passing from the dude that’s 300and world, to whom we would almost give a small piece of bread to eat, to the guy who is there, in front of 15,000 people who shout his name! »the Frenchman would remember years later.
Nevertheless, this son of a former handball player of Congolese origin and a teacher made an impression: he eliminated Andy Murray (9and) but especially Rafael Nadal, world number 2 and then triple winner of Roland-Garros, swept away in three sets in the semi-final.
Dotted seasons due to injuries
Only Novak Djokovic will stop him. Armed with his devastating serve and forehand, Tsonga went on to win his first title in Bangkok, then his first Masters 1000, at Bercy. At the end of 2008, it is 6and global.
But the shadow of wounds lurks. That spring, the colossus (1.88 m, 91 kg) had knee surgery, staying away from the courts for several months. A scenario that will pursue him throughout a career that almost never started, due to multiple physical glitches from his junior years.
In recent years, his body has given him almost no respite: in addition to underlying sickle cell disease – a genetic disease affecting red blood cells and causing great fatigue – he has suffered from knees, vertebrae, joint sacroiliac joint which calcified, forcing him to give up at 1er round of the Australian Open in 2020.
He then resumed the 2021 season only in dots, at the end of February in Montpellier, before ending it with a defeat at 1er round at Wimbledon. Tsonga returned to competition this year with the idea of ” plan [sa] exit “as he had indicated to Agence France-Presse in February, before the Open 13 in Marseille.
