Jo-Wilfried Tsonga capable of winning Grand Slam

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga insists he is still more than capable of winning a Grand Slam, despite his failure to reach a major final in over six years. The Frenchman burst onto the scene at the 2008 Australian Open, with a rousing run to the final against eventual champion Novak Djokovic cemented his star status and earned him legions of fans around the world.

He has since taken his GS record up to 75 wins and 25 defeats from 25 such tournaments, with five quarter-final appearances and four semi showings to boot.

Another final outing though has proved elusive, leading some to pigeonhole Tsonga among the nearly men in this golden era of tennis — a categorisation he would like to disapprove in the fullness of time.

“We all have our own way to join the top,” Tsonga said. “I had many problems at the beginning of my career, so I lost a bit of time. But, I came back after that — which wasn’t easy every day — and I did some good things. “Today, I’m still looking forward and I’m still looking to try to win some majors and stuff like that. “But, in the world now, there are maybe five or six guys who have won Grand Slams for the past 10 years, so it’s not a lot. “I see myself continuing to work to improve my game. Nobody knows what will happen this week, in a few weeks or next year, so I’ll keep fighting and stay confident. That’s the key.” Tsonga has made a relatively solid start to this season, with respective runs to the round of 16 in Melbourne and Rotterdam followed up by a final appearance in Marseille last week.

He’s relatively happy with how things have gone so far, albeit he expects even more from his game with more matches under his belt.

“It’s not a bad start, but I haven’t played a lot, so I need to play some more matches to get the rhythm,” the world number 10 added.

“But, it’s coming match after match and I’m sure I will be a better player every day now.”