20 and Terrific

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had something of a coming out party at the Australian Open. Once the number 2 junior in the world, next to Cypriot, Marcos Baghdatis (who has had a pretty successful career since turning pro), Tsonga has had a wide variety of ailments, from shoulder injury, abdominal injuries. His career had been stalled for years.

Only now, has Tsonga gotten himself fit, over injuries to finally play the kind of tennis that his junior career had promised.

After a thorough whipping of Nadal in the semifinals, where Tsonga was keeping up toe-to-toe from the baseline, at times, outhitting Nadal, certainly outserving Nadal, coming into net to hit drop shots and drop volleys, it seemed Tsonga might give Djokovic, the surprise finalist, a challenge.

For the first two games, both Djokovic and Tsonga looked nervous. Even as both settled down, Tsonga kept more to the baseline, not sneaking in as he had against Nadal, possibly because Djokovic plays pretty good defense. He can especially hit a good backhand, when he's out of position. I suspect Nadal stands further back from the baseline than Djokovic which made it easier for Tsonga to attack.

Now, Novak was also a bit distracted. The Djokovic family was out in full force. His mother, his father, two younger brothers, and another row of friends behind them. But a row or two behind them was a rowdy pro-Tsonga French group, painted in the French colors, and cheering wildly. The two groups got to jawing with one another, eventually requiring security to sit near the two groups. During this time, Djokovic seemed visibly bothered, not able to play his game. He struggled especially with his second serve.

On set point, Djokovic hit a strong approach, and Tsonga barely ran it down, tossing up a lob then went up and in, and he had the set.

But the next three sets all went to Djokovic. While Tsonga didn't play badly, often serving well in games, he started lacking the movement he had earlier on. Winners that were going in were now occasionally spraying long or wide. Djokovic started taking more charge of his groundstrokes, and Tsonga was mostly trading strokes.

By the fourth set, however, Djokovic looked as if he might be getting hurt, much as Tsonga was looking tired in the second and third sets. Djokovic had a trainer come out, and Tsonga looked more inspired. Even so, he found he couldn't break Tsonga (he had no opportunities in the second and third set), even as he was, for the most part, holding serve easily.

As they went into tiebreak, one advantage Djokovic had was his tiebreak record, which is pretty fantastic, and this tie break was no different as he took a minibreak, then two, to finally go up 6-2, and then, after several semifinal Grand Slam appearances and a US Open final appearance, Djokovic took the next step and won his first Grand Slam event.

At the age of 20.

But perhaps just as big, the Muhammad Ali look-alike, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (the commentators: Patrick McEnroe, Dick Enberg, Mary Carillo, and Pam Shriver running with the boxing analogies and puns all day long) might be ready to take that next step. Already, he'll move to the top 20, and he's got the game that might move to the top 10.

This was certainly a career starting move for Djokovic. But was it also the same for Tsonga? Are we witnessing the proverbial changing of the guard?