Before Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner even took the court at Rod Laver Arena for their Australian Open semifinal, former ATP star Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and famous tennis coach Patrick Mouratoglou were already embroiled in a heated debate over the comparison between two generations of tennis.
Tsonga believes that Alcaraz and Sinner, who have won every Grand Slam in the past two years, are dominating only because of the lack of quality opponents. Mouratoglou hit back, saying “[Jack] Draper, [Holger] Rune, [Alex] De Minaur, [Taylor] Fritz, [Ben] Shelton, [Felix] Auger-Aliassime” couldn’t be easily defeated by anyone from the previous generation regularly, as he tried to say that competition is at the same level, if not more.
So on Friday, after 38-year-old Djokovic defeated modern great Jannik Sinner in a five-set thriller at the Australian Open semifinal, Tsonga had every reason to be pumped. He posted a selfie of himself and gestured a victory sign while adding:
“Tennis has changed.” (translated to English).
Through this subtle remark, Tsonga suggested that his generation’s players were far better than the current crop of tennis stars.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Patrick Mouratoglou Get Personal
Things even got personal between the two when Patrick Mouratoglou, while replying to a comment, said, “Prime Jo was only one season,” even though the Frenchman is a 2008 Australian Open finalist, 2011 ATP Finals finalist and a former World No. 5.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did not like the personal comment made against him as he responded:
“You need to show some respect for the player I was when you claim in your comments that I only played well for one season. I think you’ll just be remembered as ‘The Coach’, the commentator, the event organiser, the patron, and honestly, I congratulate you for that. But you’ll never have felt in your bones what it’s like to be a tennis player and step into the arena; you don’t know what that’s like.
“You’re not in the best position to correct me or give me lessons on top-level tennis. Call me if you want to talk about tennis. But there’s no need to embarrass me on social media and to use my image.”
The debate about which generation was best is a never-ending topic. However, it’s likely that both of these figures will look forward to the classic Australian Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. Both are at opposite spectrums of their career,s and it remains to be seen whether the veterans hold their guard against the World No. 1 like they did last year.
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