The New York Times-20080125-Frenchman Stuns Nadal and the Tennis World
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Frenchman Stuns Nadal and the Tennis World
Full Text (850 words)As the acrobatic drop volleys, huge forehands and first serves kept turning into winners, Rafael Nadal puffed out his cheeks and raised his eyebrows.
Surely, it was just a matter of time before Jo-Wilfried Tsonga started playing like a young man in his first Grand Slam semifinal. Surely, it was just a matter of time before the racket started feeling strangely heavy in his hand and the balls started flying to blue-painted places beyond the baseline.
Sadly for Nadal and gladly for Tsonga and for all those who enjoy a fresh face and a truly major upset, it never happened Thursday.
Playing as if this were the first round in Marseille instead of the biggest match of his life in Melbourne, Tsonga coolly kept the pressure on Nadal in the forecourt and the backcourt to reach the final of the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory.
He used his speed to track down the ripped topspin forehands that usually leave most of Nadal's opponents lunging and vulnerable. He used his deft volleying touch to pick off the increasingly desperate bolts that the second-seeded Nadal kept hurling at him, winning 75 percent of the points at net against a man whose defensive skills may be the best in the sport.
It was, in both senses of the word, stunning. And yet Tsonga, the 22-year-old Frenchman who looks like a young Muhammad Ali but plays quite like himself, did not look stunned in the least until the moment after he calmly finished his victory with his 17th ace.
For most of the match, I truly felt like I couldn't miss, said Tsonga, who finished with 49 winners to 27 unforced errors. The thing that's the most incredible is to play a match of this quality at this kind of moment. I didn't expect it. I thought it would be a really tough match against a player who gets everything back and who grinds you down with his style of play. It's hard to beat him, because it's hard to get it past him.
But I felt today I had the potential to do it on almost every shot.
Tsonga, ranked 38th if not for long, will not play his first Grand Slam final until Sunday. And he will not know the identity of his opponent until Friday night, when the No. 1 seed and three-time champion Roger Federer of Switzerland plays against the No. 3 seed, Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
How might Tsonga handle the final when it comes?
He is truly convinced that when he goes on the court, he can beat anybody in the world, said his coach, Eric Winogradsky.
Like the unseeded Marcos Baghdatis in 2006, Tsonga has used the Australian Open as a springboard to tennis stardom by beating a string of top-10 players. But Baghdatis, the bearded Cypriot who finished just ahead of Tsonga in the 2003 world junior rankings, typically needed five sets and late nights to polish off his upsets.
The most impressive part of Tsonga's career-altering run has been the apparent ease with which he has rumbled through the draw, showing no stage fright, no mercy and an intimidating blend of offense and defense that just might turn into a new paradigm if he can sustain it.
I wasn't expecting this kind of level, even from Federer, said Nadal, a Spaniard who had not lost a set here in his first five rounds. I couldn't get in the match. He wasn't giving me time. It was all bing, bang, boom.
Tsonga, the son of a former Congolese team handball player and a French mother, has yet to be pushed to five sets by anyone in Melbourne. Not by the ninth-seeded Andy Murray of Britain in the first round. Not by the eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet in the fourth round. Not by the 14th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny in the quarterfinals and certainly not by Nadal, who could never find a way to break his serve.
It's never going to be a surprise again, he's that good a player, the former Australian Open champion Mats Wilander said of Tsonga's series of upsets. He's the most exciting player since Federer.
It is easy to succumb to hyperbole when a young talent manages to avoid the usual snares at a Grand Slam event and bursts into the open. So it would certainly be wise to see how Tsonga handles the next 72 hours and, more importantly, how he digests his breakthrough in the months and tournaments to come.
He's playing with zero pressure, everything is going good for him, Nadal said. When you are playing like this, every ball is going to the line. Is not the real level, I think. Sure he can play like this, but not every week. It's impossible, no?
[Illustration]PHOTOS: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 22, is ranked No. 38 in the world, but he played at a level that Rafael Nadal compared to Roger Federer's. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ROMEO GACAD/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE -- GETTY IMAGES); Tsonga, right, won 75 percent of the points at net against Nadal, noted for his defensive skills. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ANDREW BROWNBILL/ASSOCIATED PRESS)