One of tennis’ most notable rivalries will continue this Sunday when six-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic and home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga clash in an intriguing fourth round showdown at the French Open.
Djokovic overcame a third set blip to defeat Croatia’s Marin Cilic in four sets, while Tsonga was rarely troubled in a straight-sets dismissal of Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz.
Djokovic only needs to win the French Open to complete his set of having won each of the four Grand Slams. He has come very close in the last two years, losing to Rafael Nadal in four sets in the 2012 final and coming agonisingly close to knocking him off his perch in last year’s semi-finals.
Those two, coupled with recent wins over Nadal on clay at the Monte Carlo Masters last year, as well as this year’s Rome Masters, makes him the first non-Nadal favourite since 2005 to win the clay court Grand Slam.
Tsonga’s poor start to this season has seen him slip to 14th in the world (seeded 13th here after Juan Martin del Potro’s withdrawal due to injury).
Tsonga famously pushed Novak Djokovic to five sets in a thrilling quarter-final here two years ago; he held four match points in the fourth set before Djokovic ran away in the final set en route to reaching the final.
The Frenchman also reached last year’s semi-finals, impressively defeating Roger Federer in straight sets in the quarter-finals before failing to become the first local man since Yannick Noah in 1983 to reach the final, losing in straight sets to David Ferrer.
Thus, Djokovic will have to be on his game when the two rivals meet on Sunday, continuing a rivalry which stretches back to their meeting in the Australian Open final six years ago. That game saw two little-known players battle it out for the first Grand Slam of that year, stealing the limelight from Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who fell in the semi-finals to Djokovic and Tsonga, respectively.
Djokovic went on to win his first Grand Slam title, defeating Tsonga in four sets. The Frenchman, whose victims during his Cinderella run also included Andy Murray and Richard Gasquet, was far from disgraced in defeat.
Since then, there have been so many memorable meetings between the pair, including a final later in the year in Bangkok, where the Frenchman would capture his first career title in his second final (the first being the aforementioned Australian Open showdown in January).
Tsonga defeated Djokovic on his way to the first Masters title of his career in Paris shortly after, then at the Tennis Masters Cup and yet again on his way to a title in Marseille early in 2009. The winning streak would stop in the Miami quarter-finals soon after.
Exactly two years to the day since they met in the Australian Open final in 2008, they met in the quarter-finals in 2010, with Tsonga beating an ill Djokovic. This as last time Tsonga beat Djokovic, the Serb winning their next nine meetings – a streak that started in the semi-finals of the 2011 Wimbledon Championships.
Come Sunday, the pair will meet for the fifth time on the Grand Slam stage and for the second time at the French Open after the aforementioned quarter-final thriller two years ago.
Djokovic will have the home crowd and one of the most colourful characters on tour against him as he tries to continue his march to the French Open final, where Nadal is likely to await. However, given his recent impressive record against Tsonga, the Serb should not have a problem.
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