World number eight Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France wishes that French players should take a leaf out of the Spaniard’s book when it comes to team camaraderie and competitiveness.
“We do everything to change this statistic that we didn’t win a lot of Davis Cup and we don’t have players in the top five,” Tsonga said to reporters recently. “Maybe we still need time and is gonna happen. But for the moment, we have to work and we have to be all together. We have to push each other towards the top or motivate each other towards the top. We have to work together like the Spanish guys did. They always have dinner together. They always spend time together. They discuss a lot. I think it make Spain have a really good spirit. We are close, but we have to be more close.”
There are seven players from France that are currently ranked in the world’s top 50 with two of them in the world’s top ten (Tsonga – 8, Gasquet – 10). There are also seven players from Spain that are also in the top fifty but two of those players are in fact in the world’s top three (Rafael Nadal – 1, David Ferrer – 3).
Tsonga believes that a French player will win a Grand Slam in the future.
“I think we have the potential to [have a Grand Slam champion],” Tsonga said. “But the potential is not enough; we have to do it. We have some players who play semis sometimes. I think we’re already able to do a little bit more.”
