Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reflects on 2008 Australian Open final run, says he ‘would probably do things differently’

I was very young, it was quite an extraordinary journey. I was living my dream and then, here I am, in a Grand Slam final. It’s a bit like the Holy Grail for a tennis player. So I don’t have one image in my head, I have a lot of them.

When the Australian Open begins, I’m very confident because physically I’m very strong. I’m unconscious, too. The planets are aligned for me to have a great performance. Honestly, I’m determined. I’m convinced I can win the whole thing. Of course, if I had shouted it from the rooftops, I would have been laughed at. But that was my innermost conviction. What makes a great champion is to be convinced that it is possible.

I beat Andy Murray in the first round. When the draw comes out, I’m not the favourite at all. I’m playing a top seed, a young man who is super strong. It was a big fight, we both ended up with cramps. That I came out of there as the winner obviously gave me a boost for the rest of the competition. After that, the draw is a little easier, until the big one, Richard (Gasquet), in the round of 16. For me, he was the best French player at the time. That match revealed me.

Then there’s the match nobody never talks about, against Mikhail Youzhny in the quarter-finals. But for me, it’s my biggest tennis performance. I’m having a crazy match. He’s in great shape, he beat Rafael Nadal 6-1 6-0 in the warm-up tournament in Doha. He’s playing incredible, he’s confident. I remember this quarter-final as a ping-pong match. It was just a lot of breeze going back and forth. Obviously, I hear a lot about what’s next against Nadal, but that match against Youzhny was a real eye-opener too, that I was able to play with maximum intensity for three hours non-stop.

The semi-final against Nadal? Frankly, that day, for the time being, all the planets are aligned. I have this unconsciousness of the moment that makes me do things that I could not do in consciousness and maybe never repeat. When I look back at the match, there are points, volleys…I say to myself ‘what is this thing, where did it come from?’. I’m playing perfect tennis, in perfect conditions for me. Maybe I’m unstoppable at this point. Here I am, I’m in the final.

Emotionally, it takes a lot of energy. The first time is so strong. Novak is in the top 10, he has played a Grand Slam final, maybe several semis, he has won Masters 1000 events. He has all that in his bag. He knows all that, he is already used to big matches. I’m not. That’s an advantage on his side. Me, I have my own madness and my own tennis.

I start well. I win the first set, I make a break in the second. I feel good, I’m into this match. But afterwards, I think I’m a bit caught up in my emotions, because it’s the first one, because this, because that. We’ll never really know the why or the how. What I do know is that after the Melbourne final, I will beat him four or five times in a row. So I had the capacity to beat him and win this final. There are details that at one point prevented me from winning it. But when you look at Djokovic’s 21 Grand Slams, you have to put things into perspective. Moreover, it was in Australia, the tournament where he was going to be the strongest.

If I could change something? My parents, who sacrificed a lot for me, came from France for the final. It was a real pleasure for them, even if they had to fly 24 hours, a round trip over two days… It was a bit of a crazy trip. In retrospect, if I had to do it again, I would change things because, emotionally, for me, it was maybe too much. I come from a modest family, a sibling of three children. My parents always took me to tennis. On weekends, they would drive 200km, 300km, 400km to take me to tournaments. They sacrificed time, compared to my brother and sister, too.

Their presence, in terms of emotion, was hard to handle. It took away some of my vigour, some of my energy. Today, I might say to them, ‘Dad, Mom, please stay home, I’m going to win this match and bring the cup home.’ We’ll never know if it really had an impact on the final, but I would probably do things differently, yes.

But this final served me well and helped me. The match, the experience. After that, I’m going to win the Masters 1000 in Bercy at the end of the year. I’m beating Djokovic that week, by the way. The problem is that I really analysed this final the proper way too late. They tell you it’s the technical, physical, mental side. But by analysing every point, hearing things from the outside, you end up getting bogged down. Sometimes things are much simpler than that. My whole career I’ve been asking myself why. Why did I lose that final when I beat him five times in a row after that? What happened? You never stop thinking. You try, you fall down, you get up, you move on, it’s part of a player’s career. So this final is part of mine.”

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