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THE CHAMPIONSHIPSJuly 6, 2019Jo-Wilfried TsongaWimbledon, London, England R. NADAL/J. Tsonga 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Over your career, what would you say is, like, the one or two most important decisions that you have made to impact your career? JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: I don't know. That's a good question. We had so many. As a player, you have so many things to decide. You have so many things to put together, to play well and enjoy your career. Yeah, it deserve maybe some more time to answer this question. But I think for me the most important decision in my life was just to try to play tennis, because when I was kid, the Federation give me the opportunity to play. Other way, no chance I can play tennis. Tennis was too expensive for my family. And then I had this chance to play with the French Federation, and I took it and I decide just to try to be a professional tennis player (smiling). Q. And I presume that was in Paris? Who did you play with as a young player when you were first starting? JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: When I was first starting? Who, you said, I played? Q. Who were the other players that you were playing with when you were a young boy, when you were just starting? JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: So many (smiling). So many, because we start to play tennis, I start to play tennis at seven. And at eight or nine I start to do maybe a competition. I played with many, many players. Q. Last time we met was way back in 2008 in Thailand. I'm not sure you remember that? JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: Yeah, I remember. Q. That was your breakout year. You reached the first Grand Slam final against Novak. Ten years later, Novak managed to win double-digit Grand Slam. Meanwhile you cannot win any single. What happened? JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: What happened I just, for the moment, it was just to -- for the moment, it was too hard for me, because if I didn't reach it it's because, you know, I was not able like this, you know. And that's it. I always work for it. I always engage myself at the maximum. Yeah. Q. Do you think you maybe born into wrong era and Big Four dominant? JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: For sure was not easy. Was really challenging to play with those guys. Maybe the three or four best players ever in the same generation: Rafa, Roger, Novak, and some others, Andy. Yeah, so was not easy but very challenging. Anyway, today I'm proud of that because I'm one of the players who gave them some tough matches. Yeah, that's it. Q. Not that many people have played all three of those, Roger, Rafa, and Novak. If you had to pick the toughest of the three, say, on a slow hard court? JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: For me they're all the same. They're all very good, and when they play at their best, it's really tough to beat them. That's it. That's it. I think they're the same. When they won more than 10 Grand Slam each, some of them are 20, others 12 times the same one, so yeah, they're all the same. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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