JO-WILFRIED TSONGA: WHAT'S LEFT WHEN TENNIS STOPS?
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga looks back on his career, his mixed-race identity and his life after tennis.
What is said in the show
Denis Carreaux sits down with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, former world number 5, for an interview that goes well beyond sport. Tsonga begins by discussing the values of simplicity instilled by his parents and the decisive role played by his primary school teacher in shaping his path. He introduces the association Attrape la Balle, founded by his parents in 2009 and since taken over by him and his brother, which now focuses on adapted sport for young people with mental and psychological disabilities. In the Pile ou Face segment, he analyses what he lacked to win a Grand Slam, pointing to nutrition and certain missed encounters, then reflects on thirty years of friendship and rivalry with Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet and Gilles Simon. He then addresses his relationship with money and fame, followed by his mixed-race identity, a source of both strength and vulnerability. He describes the emptiness felt upon retiring from sport and how he fills it through entrepreneurship, family and fishing - a childhood passion that serves as his refuge. He concludes by saying he no longer wants to be judged and by recommending parenthood.
Chapters
- 0:00Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, beyond tennis
- 1:13The values passed on by his parents
- 6:07His commitment to Attrape la Balle
- 13:00What he lacked to win a Grand Slam
- 17:00Monfils, Gasquet, Simon: 30 years of friendship
- 22:00Money, fame and the gaze of others
- 25:27Being mixed-race, strength and vulnerability
- 28:07The emptiness after retiring from sport
- 37:56Fishing as a refuge and simple pleasures
- 40:36No longer wanting to be judged
Key moments
« Overnight, you go from being a tennis player to being nothing. And I think that inevitably creates a void, and that void is not easy to fill. »
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga · at 29:17
« I am mixed-race, my mother is white, my father is Black. And constantly, people ask us to choose. Are you Black or are you white - they ask less often, but they already ask if you are Black. »
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga · at 0:00
« We used to go up to the top of the main court at Roland Garros in the middle of winter and say to each other: can you imagine, one day you're playing Marat Safin down there. »
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga · at 18:44
« I think that is one of the small things I lacked: instead of telling myself I'm going to win 10, I told myself oh, it would be nice if I won one. »
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga · at 15:25
« Does parenthood make you happy? The answer: have kids. »
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga · at 42:01