Jo-Wilfried Tsonga capped off an amazing week at the Rogers Cup – Toronto Masters 2014 with a title victory over number two seed Roger Federer 7-5, 7-6. This is Tsonga’s second careeer Masters 1000 titles (won first at 2008 Paris Masters).
Tsonga posted upset wins this week, having beaten Andy Murray and world number one Novak Djokovic along the way. He would go on to beat the Swiss tennis superstar on Sunday, effectively ending an 18-month title drought. His previous title victory was in Marseille in 2013.
“I’m so happy. It will stay in my heart forever,” Tsonga said after receiving the trophy.
“I feel good,” he said. “I think for the moment I don’t realize really what I achieved this week, but it’s a big achievement for me.
“It’s completely different than before when I won in Paris. In Paris it was the first one, behind my family, all my friends, everybody. Here I just did it with my level, with my game. I played well all week. I beat many good guys. It’s a big achievement because I worked really hard to come back from my knee injury last year.”
The victory vaults Tsonga’s ranking back into the world’s top 10, a first since March of this year. The Frenchman’s ranking dipped with younger players such as Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic and Kei Nishikori making their mark in the world’s top ten.
“Today was just difficult in terms of rhythm from the baseline, so it was like a new tournament for me,” said Federer. “No excuses. I think he played really solid and well when he had to and I think he served well overall, which was key for him.
“I’m overall pretty happy that I made the finals in my first tournament back on hard courts…I know what I need to work on the next few days and next few weeks.”
In doubles, Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares successfully defended the title with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo.
