The career of French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will come to an end soon. The 36 year-old frenchman made this announcement late Wednesday afternoon. It shouldn’t come as a complete surprise considering that his current ranking is world number 220 and that injuries had been a recurring problem late in his career, but the surprise for some tennis fans like myself was being unaware that he hadn’t already retired. Tsonga, despite being forgotten about in recent years, put together a distinguished career on the ATP Tour that began in 2004.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga debuted on the ATP Tour in 2004. In 2007, Tsonga won four singles titles on the ATP Challenger Tour. he won his first career ATP singles title at the 2008 Thailand Open. he beat Lukas Dlouhy, Jurgen Melzer, Gael Monfils, and Novak Djokovic enroute to the title. He won his second ATP singles title at the 2008 Paris Masters where he once again beat Djokovic to get to the quarterfinals, and then beat Andy Roddick and James Blake to get to the final where he beat David Nalbandian to collect his first career ATP Masters 1000 singles title. He won three more singles titles in 2009, bringing his career total to five ATP singles titles. Tsonga made it to the year-end ATP Tour Finals in 2011, but lost to Roger Federer in the final round. He won his 10th ATP singles title in 2013 at the Open 13 in Marseille. Tsonga currently has 18 ATP singles titles and 467 match wins. His highest world ranking was world number 5 back in 2012.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has represented France multiple times in international competitions. He was a Silver Medalist in doubles at the 2012 London Olympics. Tsonga also led France to victory at the 2014 Hopman Cup and the 2017 Davis Cup.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has done well at majors, having advanced to the quarterfinals or better at all four majors in his career. He was a quarterfinalist at the 2011, 2015, and 2016 U.S. Opens. He was a semifinalist at the 2011 and 2012 Wimbledons. He was also a semifinalist at the 2013, and 2015 French Opens. Tsonga’s best finish at a major came in 2008 where he lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open. Tsonga won the first set, but dropped the next three to Djokovic and was denied the title.
Tsonga lost his most recent singles match against Jordan Thompson in the opening round of the Miami Open.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has accumulated $22 million in prize money in his career, which puts him as the 18th highest earning male tennis player all-time.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s last tournament will be the French Open. The 2022 French Open will start May 22nd and will end June 5th. This will be Tsonga’s last chance to win a major.
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