Wimbledon 2011. Tsonga vs. Federer. Federer up one set to love, and cruising on serve in the second. 4-5, 15-0, and out of nowhere, a crazy point emerges (the one above). After several defense returns, Tsonga attempts to neutralize Federer by firing one back over, albeit straight at the Swiss. No luck. The next shot? A slice to the right. Federer unfazed. Inside out slice to the left. Even with an improvised one handed backhand, a lucky net cord, and a dive, Tsonga still can’t find a way to win the point.

It was a perfect metaphor for the way the match was going. Hold serve all you like, but on Federer’s serve, he plays by his rules, and come crunch time, he will crush you. Indeed, he did, going up 5-0 in the tiebreak and winning it 7-3, going up two sets to love.

The video above is a typical point against Federer. The opponent, pushed out of position, attempts to not only get back into the point, but get on top of the point by throwing the kitchen sink at their masterful opponent, only to be calmly undone in the end. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a great player in his own right, had thrown the kitchen sink, but was on his way out with a whimper.

Or had he?

Suddenly, Jo not only threw caution to the wind, he set it on fire. He played more aggressively, yes, but he began to hammer the ball. Absolutely crush it. Forehands mid-height were jumped and ripped into. Backhands were pummeled. And the forehand was sent to the corners with reckless abandon, both corners. When he knew he was on top, he come foreward appropriately and finish it.

While the highlights tend to show the longer points for interest, lost are the points where Tsonga was simply unplayable. He was raking in free points behind massive first serves and punishing inside out forehands. On the return, he was constantly looking to get forward. That doesn’t mean mindless net rushing, it means hitting a good ball, and following it up by punishing a short ball after. Sometimes it resulted in net play, other times it simply resulted in Jo hitting an outright winner.

Jo went on to win the match in five sets in what is the most impressive five set turn around I have ever seen. Tsonga did not play badly in the first two sets, and Federer did not play badly in the final three sets. Tsonga simply chose to destroy the ball and look to play aggressively. It gave Federer less time on the ball and forced him into a defensive position, and not even his great knack for incredible shots could save him.

Here is the great problem with Jo. At the time, he was without a coach. He attributed some of his success to this factor. His random one handed backhands (he normally uses two) would drive a coach crazy. But his sudden ability to say “meh, screw it” down two sets and begin to rip the cover off the ball could easily be attributed to this. There was no coach in the stands to yell at. No “why is this happening?!” responded to with blank stares. Jo was on his own, and his only response was to go out in a blaze of glory. Weirdly, he won.

Jo started 2012 as he left 2011; without a coach. Without going results heavy, the start of the season had mixed results. Motivation returned in Paris, where the Frenchman held multiple match points against Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals and should have won. How did he do it? Think Robin Soderling with movement. Jo was largely crushing the ball yet again. While clay is a slow service, big hitters can find success on the stuff if the ball is bouncing at a good height and they are persistent (Soderling, Del Potro, Stosur). A Wimbledon semifinal. Then downhill from here with a weak loss to Klizan at the US Open.

Tsonga looked a shadow of his big hitting self against a less than inspired Djokovic in London. Very recently, Tsonga has hired on Roger Rasheed, former Hewitt and Monfils coach, stating that he had become lonely on the tour, and that it was difficult to stay motivated. Fair point. It’s hard to run out on court and crush the ball if you kind of don’t care.

Coaches. Can’t win with ‘em. Can’t win without ‘em. There is definitely a case to be made that coaches in the past may have held Tsonga back, whether it is overloading him with information, breaking his confidence, we can only assume. While going without a coach is fine, it can only last so long for a player like Tsonga. Not even Federer could last without a coach.

The moral of the story? Rasheed does not need to fill Tsonga’s head with deep tactical analysis, or even deep analysis of his shots. There is nothing wrong with that. Rasheed needs to get Tsonga practicing more, get his energy and motivation levels up, which in turn will raise his game to a more aggressive state. And lastly? He needs to tell Jo to crush it.

Hit the damn ball, Jo. Hit the damn ball.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, my Christmas break was much more busy than I expected to be. I planned on doing 12 different posts to wrap up the 2011s of the top 6 men and women. Turns out that wasn’t going to happen. However, I did come up with a post for Tsonga, and I figure it might not be a bad time to post it considering his current form, and recent Doha championship. This will be the (second and) last one. Regular blog activity, however, returns now!

Looking back on Jo’s year, it’s pretty incredible that the Frenchman managed to finish in the top 10 let alone number 6. Despite making the Rotterdam final, it was a tough start of the year for Jo who fell in the third round of the Australian Open. He had an absolutely dismal clay swing where he played five tournaments before Roland Garros and only mustered up 6 victories. He wouldn’t escape the third round of the French either, falling to Stan the Man.

But like just about all of our beloved French players, it’s all in the head with this one. A defeat of Nadal at Queen’s and run to the final (where he lost to Murray) gave him the confidence he desperately needed. Wimbledon was the perfect stage (and surface) for Tsonga to make a run.

After defeating Ferrer in the fourth round, the mighty Federer stood in Jo’s way. It was a typical, old school “frozen in the sights of the master” by Jo over the first two sets, where he seemingly forgot which parts of his game bring him success. Two sets to The Fed, and it was over.

That’s what we figured. Everyone except Tsonga, apparently. Against Federer, and Wimbledon’s greatest champion, it was something none of us have ever seen and will likely never see again. Sure, guys have loosened up and tried to make great comebacks against greats other than just Federer. However, the issues of concentration, fitness and overall skill tend to undo the underdog and get the favourite into the next round. Unfortunately for Fed, it was a different animal.
Jo didn’t just throw caution into the wind, he loaded it into a rocket launcher and fired it back to his house in France. The man was an absolute beast. To start, the serve. Enormous. To boot, he looked to not only pulverize every ball hit his way, but to push it to the sides or the corners. And to kick off the ultimate grass court game, he came to the net when necessary and used his athleticism to finish points off. Honestly, I don’t think anyone on tour would have beaten Jo in those three sets. It was the ultimate display of power, movement, and volleying.

Next up was the man of the hour, Novak Djokovic. With hindsight, in my opinoin, this was probably going to be Djokovic’s toughest match. Die hard Rafa fans will disagree, but Novak needed two tight tiebreakers (9-7 and 11-9) to squeeze out of this one. If Jo had just a little bit more of the spark that he had versus Fed and a little bit more luck, it easily could have gone the other way.
The rest of Jo’s hard court season saw a steady string of results, including beating Federer again en route to the Montreal semis, the quarters in New York, the Metz title and the Paris final, among some other good results. Lastly, he beat Nadal and pushed his way into the World Tour Finals before losing to Federer.

For me, Jo continues to be a player to watch, and a guy you never want to see in your section of the draw. It takes an incredible amount of skill to win a grand slam these days. We often talk about having all of the “tools”, and Jo’s tool box runneth over. He’s one of my favourite players to watch. Powerful serve, a solid (and powerful when necessary) forehand combined with excellent movement and athleticism that can help him make that show stopping shot or get to that tricky ball.

No, for Jo it’s both in the head and the body. Injuries seem to plague him, and for a guy who needs confidence and a steady string of results to get his feet under him, constantly being banged up and missing matches does not help the brain. If Jo can stay healthy and get some solid results under his belt, me might just be able to stir up some results at Wimbledon and into the second half of 2012.

Djokovic’s Tournament So Far: Defeated Tomic, Llodra, Baghdatis, Anderson, Chardy.

What Djokovic Needs To Do: It’s been a bumpy ride through Wimbledon for Novak. Struggling with Baghs and Tomic after a couple of sets has tested Novak and forced him to raise his game despite some frustration. What is really going on here, no one can know. Is he physically tired? Mentally tired? Over confident after winning two sets? Tough to know. Regardless, Nole is going to be in tough against and is going to have to play his best tennis of the tournament.

I think the real key for Nole is just his head, but in terms of play, definitely his return and his backhand. Jo was able to exploit Fed’s backhand, both in rallies and on the return, and his cross court forehand was just deadly. Nole’s backhand is a lot better than Fed’s, and he’s also a better returner, which he will need with Jo’s serve being brutal this tournament.

Tsonga’s Tournament So Far: Defeated Federer, Ferrer, F. Gonzalez, Dimitrov, Soeda.

What Tsonga Needs To Do: Keep doing what you were doing! Jo’s level of play in the last 3 sets against Fed was absurd. The serve was crushing, he was looking to move in, looking to be aggressive, and then crushing the crap out of the forehand to boot.

One of the biggest problems I tend to have with Jo is his how he becomes so passive. Jo moves incredible well front to back, but not as well side to side. He also has a solid forehand in terms of power and his placement with it, but often chooses to just get the ball back with it a bit too much. When he beat Fed, he went for nearly every forehand, and because of that, was staying on the aggressive. It was insane. Jo absolutely needs to do that against Novak. He has the ability to dictate play, and he needs to be looking to do that every point. Novak is too solid not too.

If Jo can play like he did against Fed, he’ll win this tournament. I like him to win in 4 sets.

For those who missed it, I asked on Twitter for people to send in their thoughts on who would win both semifinals, and how many sets it would take. Here’s the results. Whoever correctly picked both winners and respective total set count will get a follow Friday! Here’s the results from this match.

Novak in 5: 6 total: @tenniswatch, @GVTennisNews, @ruthlesscourt, @EllieFM, @Daszmarreli, @emmaphickey
Novak in 4: 7 total: @DancingPanda1, @omes_tennis, @RacquetRequired, @mitchjos, @DiscoDebMKE, @Sheilokavieira, @anna_tennisfan
Novak in 3: 2 total: @marpal38, @r0si

Jo in 5: 5 total: @jeannab64, @delpotweeties, @BraveThinkSol, @AdjustingTheNet, @clairetennisfan
Jo in 4: 10 total: @nidssserz, @ljkingy, @omygravy, @jonscott9, @ember_42, @sharapovanovic, @Ms_Art_House, @elliejackson1, @zbrain, @MindTheRacket
Jo in 3: 3 total: @stephinNZ, @rosso_neri, @Daily_Scores

Weapons: Extremely athletic, huge serve and a good net game
Weaknesses: Power off the forehand and backhand doesn’t live up to the serve, can be a bit too passive sometimes

For me, Jo is one of the most exciting and enjoyable players to watch on tour when he is playing well. He’s incredibly athletic and has a bomb of a serve, which makes for a fun and pretty unique combo, to be honest. Unfortunately, being a good athlete does not automatically translate to being a good tennis player, and Jo is guilty of letting his brain fly out the window at times. However, his play in Queen’s was an excellent sign that he’s willing to step up and play hard on the grass. If he can keep the serve working, come to the net, and stay aggressive, he should be able to match his quarterfinal appearance from last year.

Weapons: Huge serve, big forehand, great athleticism.
Weaknesses: Grass = shorter points, perma-injured.

Jo has only ever played two Wimbledons, 2007 and last year, and finished in the fourth and third rounds respectively. However, he was taken out by Ivo last year in four sets. Jo’s game both translates well and badly to grass. His powerful and flat serve immulates the effectiveness of guys like Dick and Rusty, and he has a big forehand that will help in the return game. However, he’s not always a fan of ending points quickly and sometimes prefers to rely on his fantastic athleticism to win points… which obviously doesn’t exactly work on grass. Oh, and he’s always friggin’ injured. Still, if Jo can come out firing and with an aggressive mind, he could go far in this tournament.

Lindsay Davenport is coming back! Kinda. She’s planning on play dubs with Liezel “Locker Puncher” Huber at Stanford and San Diego. The two played together for the US of A at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, so it’s perhaps fitting that it’s announced that they’re playing two American tournaments on Memorial Day.

And Jo is out for at least 10 days because of his hip (I’ve also seen groin) and will be re-evaluated and might miss the whole grass season. Crap.

Hell of a final match on Chatrier. Jo came out in the first set with his best Rafa impression, hanging around a thousand feet behind the baseline, and was thus pretty well dominated by German up and comer Daniel Brands (who stands an impressive 6’5, 200 pounds and has some serious muscle).

The second and third sets were a different story. Jo started making things happen, taking the ball on the rise, moving closer to the baseline, and instead of trying to simply push with the forehand, he came in when his opponent was out of position. Then the magic of 5 sets found it’s way in the door, and Brands started hitting bigger serves, taking more risks, and easily took a fourth set tiebreak.

Jo kept at it though, thank Sven, and despite some seriously mixed body language, was holding easily in the fifth set and finally broke to take the fifth and final set 7-5. Full props to Brands, who should definitely be one to keep an eye out for the hard court season, especially in some smaller events. The good news is that Jo has French youngin’ Ouanna up next (which should be a great match on centre) and then probably Garlo in the third round. Both are totally do-able. Let’s just not take the long road next time, ok?

OK, fine. I say that at nearly every start of pre-slam action. In January, when the season starts, after the French Open, when Wimbledon starts feeling oh so close, and the American hard court season… but this is a special one. This is marked by the absolute GORGEOUS tournament that is Monte Carlo (the fact that so many players skip it is nuts, I’d just want to play on that court, who cares about winning on it) where slip sliders and clay rats get their turn on the crazy stuff from Mars.

Tell your friends, MTR is back, and this time for good. That’s right, I have 3 exams left, and boom, done. Which means I’ll be watching tons, and blogging even more.

Yesterday went pretty well according to plan, and I got to see a ton of Jo/Nico, which was an absolute grind. Jo needed 13 minutes to hold serve in his second service game, and won the tiebreaker off the guts of a crazy drop shot. He then somehow broke at love in the second set to take it 7-5. And there were some long ass rallies. Which isn’t exactly something you would get with Jo and Nico on a hard court. Ah, the beauty of it all. I can’t wait.

Wowza. As soon as I can get off a “WTF dudes?” post, Rafa comes along and rocks my shit. Jo had one impressive win over JCF, and despite bringing the tool box and then some for Rafa… it wasn’t really going to matter. In fact, it wasn’t really a blow out like the scoreboard says (at 6-3, 6-2) but at the same time, there wasn’t much doubt that Rafa was taking this home.

Jason and Robbie were hyping this as his greatest performance of 2010… and from what I’ve seen, it’s hard to disagree. He never once took his foot off the pedal, and he played the important points like the Rafa of old. In other words, scary stuff. Especially considering Jo has a big forehand, and these are hard courts. What the hell kind of magic this guy could pull out of his ass over the clay season, I have no idea. Beware, peasants. The King of Clay may be eying his return to the throne.

Oh Jo. Do this more often, won’t you? I didn’t see a ton of the match, but it sure is a treat to watch Jo kick ass when he’s confident (and healthy). The potential is there, and the dude is the whole package, and you could see it today, even with just a few points. Chasing down balls, then hammering them with the big forehand, tapping little half volleys. Only 50% serving, but he was broken once, and lost only 4 points on the first serve. And let’s be honest, JCF has been on fire, and didn’t play the best, but a 6-2, 6-2 win is an impressive thrashing to make it to the quarters. Rafa is likely up next, which would be a real treat of match. (And how about that Babolat switch? Seemed like a bonehead move, but it’s really working out for him).