Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has declared his confidence is officially back after the Frenchman booked himself a place in the Roland Garros quarter-finals on Sunday.
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Tsonga, seeded No 14 in Paris after his ranking suffered a dip due to an arm injury that forced him to miss the first three months of the season, beat fourth seed Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3 to reach the last eight in Paris for the third time in four years.
Heading into the French Open, Tsonga – whose nickname is Ali due his resemblance to Muhammad Ali – has managed to win back-to-back matches just twice in the five events he played in and wasn’t in the best of shape coming to Paris.
But his resounding win over Berdych, who had beaten him on the clay of Madrid just a few weeks ago, has restored his confidence, ahead of a blockbuster clash with No 5 seed Kei Nishikori on Tuesday.
This is Tsonga’s first major quarterfinal in two years (lost at every major in R16 in straight sets last year).
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“When you’re injured for few months, sometimes it’s difficult because even if you try to be confident, you feel sometimes your body was not right. Sometimes you don’t have enough tennis. So you never know. Since couple of months I’m working hard, I try in every match. I had a lot of possibilities in matches. But I lost a few of them.
“Now I think everything I did the last couple of months has proven to me that when you work hard and you stay positive and you continue to believe in yourself, you are able to do something,” said the 30-year-old.
“When I play my best tennis, I know I’m able to beat many guys. So even if the last couple of months were tough, I always believed in me. I continue to work hard and try to be really consistent in my head.
“When it’s difficult you have people who tell you that it’s finished for you and you have people who tell you, ‘continue to fight, because you have the tennis to play well’.
“I have the chance to have those people around me who stay positive for me, and they help me to never give up. That’s why I’m happy today, because I’m playing solid tennis. The confidence is back.”
Tsonga claims he is playing this season with renewed hunger, after a tough injury made him miss the Australian Open.
“It’s been a while since I stopped playing or I have not been playing my best tennis, so I’m hungry. My main concern is to play good tennis,” he added.
