Mr. Chip & Charge

• Tsonga Blew It against Nadal

  2008-03-23 10:58:00
  Rafael Nadal’s win against Jo-Wilfred Tsonga in the fourth round of Indian Wells was worth a lot more than a one match victory. After famously trashing Nadal at the Australian Open, Tsonga had a golden opportunity to prove that he owns Nadal on hardcourts. The 22-year old Frenchman managed to win a tight first set to lose an equally close second set before racing off to a 5-2 lead in the third set. This is when Tsonga showed that he is no different than his countrymen. And there is no worse player to choke against than Nadal.
  
  The 21-year old Spanish bull will always be ready to take every opportunity he can to get back in a match. It doesn’t matter if Nadal doesn’t have any of the weapons of his opponent or if he has a day when he isn’t hitting the sweet spot. You can always count on that Nadal will show up with a tough mental attitude and not once look like a loser. I admire him greatly for this, and remember how impressed I was by seeing Nadal storm onto the scene as a 15-year old.
  
  Most young guys coming up are usually spoiled by winning on the junior level and are often lacking strength in the mental department compared to their more experienced opponents. Nadal, however, showed no signs of this. Even when he was losing, he didn’t show any negative signs on the court such as throwing the racket. The only time he said something was after a good shot when he so famously screamed “vamos!”. This has stuck with him, and he is still a great role model when it comes to mental attitude on a tennis court.
  
  Following his important victory over Tsonga, Nadal got through another match that can have a big impact on up-coming matches. James Blake came into the encounter with a 3-0 head-to-head (7-1 in sets) but ended up on the losing side this time around. Even if Nadal loses to Djokovic tonight, the Mallorcan can leave Indian Wells with back-to-back key match wins. How different it would have been if Tsonga didn’t blow it…

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