Abu Dhabi: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is aiming for a return to the world’s top 10 and greater consistency after sealing fifth place at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
The Frenchman, who beat Tomas Berdych 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 10-3 (super tiebreak) on the second day of the annual exhibition at Zayed Sports City, is currently 12th in the world rankings after battling injuries.
He reached as high as five in February 2012 and said of his 2017 goals: “To be honest, I have a direct target every year but it’s difficult to reach it. I want to go as high as possible [in the rankings] and the target for me in the short term is to be in the top 10 and be consistently in the top 10 to be able to play against those [top] guys every week and have the opportunity to win against them in big tournaments.”
Tsonga was pleased he was more on song against Berdych than he was in his opening match at the Mubadala tournament, which he lost 6-7 (2-7), 4-6 to debutant David Goffin on Thursday.
And he plans to celebrate his victory and the coming year by watching British pop band Coldplay perform at the du Arena on Yas Island on New Year’s Island — as he did in 2011.
“Yeah, I’m going back,” the 31-year-old laughed. “Will I be singing? I am not able to sing anyway, but I will go and watch how they do. [The previous concert] was a really good memory for me and I hope this is going to be another good one.”
