DUBAI // Laid low by injuries from Wimbledon onwards, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is looking for a fast start to the new season with success at this weekend’s star-studded Mubadala World Tennis Championships in the capital.
Tsonga, who has not played a competitive match since his second-round defeat by Kei Nishikori at the Paris Masters, in October, will return to action with an opening day clash against Andy Murray on Thursday.
Murray also has been out of action, since his Davis Cup appearance against Croatia in September, after the Scot decided to have surgery on his lower back, which had earlier forced him to pull out of the 2013 French Open.
“I am very excited, of course, to play Andy on the first day,” Tsonga said yesterday. “This is going to be his first match since his injury, so it will be interesting to see how the match goes.
“I don’t have any pain in my knees now for four weeks and I am really looking forward to this tournament. The top 10 are here, and there is no better preparation. I will play against Murray, one of the best players in the world, and it’s always good to play against them and see where your level is.”
Tsonga will be making his third appearance at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, a tournament which has brought together the elite of men’s tennis since its 2009 inception.
The draw includes the world’s top four – Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, David Ferrer and Murray – and the world No 8 Stanislas Wawrinka. The lowest-ranked player in the draw, at world No 10, Tsonga knows winning the Abu Dhabi event would be a boost as he starts a new season, with the Hopman Cup his only other engagement before the Australian Open.
Winning the tournament “would mean I have already beaten three guys from the top 10”, the Frenchman said. “So it will be great and I will know I am ready.”
A finalist at the Australian Open in 2008, Tsonga started 2013 with a quarter-final appearance in Melbourne and then became the first Frenchman since Gael Monfils in 2008 to reach the last-four of the French Open.
At Wimbledon, he retired from his second-round match and later missed the North American swing, including the US Open, because of injury.
Since then, he has changed his coaching team, replacing Roger Rasheed with the duo of Thierry Ascione and Nicolas Escude, and is confident of finally ending his wait for a grand slam title.
“Impossible is nothing,” Tsonga said. “I know I still have the passion and that’s what makes me dream about winning a major. The goal is to win a major and I have prepared really well these last couple of weeks, so I am really excited. Everything is going well and I am sure I will be a better player than last year.”
Murray says Wimbledon title was ‘life changing’ accomplishment
While spending three months recovering from back surgery, Scotland’s Andy Murray has had plenty of time to reflect on becoming the first Briton in 77 years to win the Wimbledon “gentlemen’s” singles title, in July.
“It changed my life,” he said. “For a number of years, I had worked hard to try and achieve that, and I have been playing under an extreme amount of pressure, especially at Wimbledon, over the last five to six years, and I had not been quite able to get over the final hurdle.
“To do it is just a massive weight off my shoulders. Obviously, if I was to have to retire tomorrow, I would be happy. That’s not going to be the case and I want to achieve more, but if it was tomorrow, and I could not play anymore, at least I don’t have to worry.”
Murray faces Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Thursday in the first round of the Mubadala World Championship, with the winner taking on Novak Djokovic.
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