All Hail Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Yes, I know that dude lost to Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open, but Tsonga is my new favorite player. I'm watching the men's final and it's really one of the more interesting matches I've ever watched. Both players are powerful, quick, and relatively error free, although Tsonga did show signs of wearing out in the second and third sets. It's the exact opposite of the women's final that was full of bad shots and less than exciting play in general. The best part of that one was getting to watch Ivanovic for a while. I don't find anything beyond the shoulders to be all that interesting on Sharapova. I'm just not into lanky and thin. Usually I don't resort to chauvinistic attractiveness ratings in talking about women's tennis, but really the tennis wasn't all that interesting this time around.

The moral of that story is that male chauvinism is only acceptable when there's nothing more interesting to talk about.

As for the men's final, it's just amazing tennis when you hear the commentators, who've been watching way too much tennis by this point in a major tournament, yelp in shock at shots on a regular basis, and I don't mean the normal, exclamations of surprise that sportscasters use intentionally to make the action seem more exciting to their audience. I mean the sort of wordless exhortations that sound odd when coming from the TV, especially given the momentary awkward silence that followed before the crew could think of anything intelligent to say. These guys were returning such difficult shots on a regular basis that it actually started to seem surprising when a shot went wide or slammed into the net.

But here's why I like Tsonga so much. Part of it is my love of the underdog and the up-and-comer. Even though I like and respect Federer, I automatically cheer against him in almost every situation. I was pulling for Djokovic in the semifinal against Federer even though I don't really like Djokovic that much. I also love exciting players, and Tsonga has been nothing but exciting in this tournament, but he's also been the ideal of sportsmanship. Where Djokovic has come across as cocky and a bit of an ass, even taunting the fans in his match against Federer, Tsonga actually calmly went to the net to shake Nadal's hand before celebrating his win, very enthusiastically. It's fine to celebrate a win with gusto, especially the biggest win of your career to that point, but it shows incredible self control and respect for your opponent to calmly shake his hand before doing so. I'm sure Nadal appreciated not having to watch his young opponent dance around like an idiot while waiting for the customary handshake, and I doubt he begrudged his opponent's flailing about after he was able to pack up and leave the court.

I even like Tsonga in spite of his sloping brow. It makes him look a little like a Neanderthal, or Andre the Giant's much tinier cousin, a feature that apparently I'm not the only one to notice. (Julie, do you mind translating that for us?) Actually, his nickname, the Muhammad Ali of Tennis, or just Ali for short, is appropriate, as he does look like a young Ali. He also reminds me something of Pete Sampras. He's got the same hair, the same stocky-for-a-tennis-player physique, and some similar facial features.

He's had some injury issues in the past, so I really hope he stays healthy, of course I really feel the same way about Djokovic. I'd love to see Federer just be great instead of The-Only-Player-with-a-Chance-Except-on-Clay-Against-Nadal. I'd be cool with watching tournaments and not having a clue what combination of Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Tsonga, and occasionally Roddick was going to make the final match. Maybe I'd even be able to start pulling for Federer once in a while if he started losing a little more often.