Background
Tsonga is of mixed ancestry. His father, handball player Didier Tsonga, is from Congo-Brazzaville, and his mother Évelyne is French. Jo's father moved to France during the 1970s to fulfill his own dreams of becoming a handball great, where he eventually met Évelyne and they married. Tsonga is nicknamed Ali, because of his facial resemblance to the boxer.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has a younger brother (Enzo) who, much like Jo, has been inspired to play sports and is part of the French basketball program (junior). He also has an elder sister (Sasha) who is less involved with sporting ventures. His footballing cousin is Maël Lépicier who plays for Congo. Tsonga and Gaël Monfils developed a good friendship from a young age, when they enjoyed mimicking all the tennis greats of the past.
As a junior, Tsonga reached a ranking of No. 2 in the world and won the US Open title. He reached 4 other semi-finals of junior grand slam events. Marcos Baghdatis was a rival of Tsonga in the junior stage.
Junior Slam results:
Australian Open: SF (2002, 2003)
French Open: SF (2003)
Wimbledon: SF (2003)
US Open: W (2003)
Read more about this topic: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Pilate with his question “What is truth?” is gladly trotted out these days as an advocate of Christ, so as to arouse the suspicion that everything known and knowable is an illusion and to erect the cross upon that gruesome background of the impossibility of knowledge.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)