Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has revealed that he once played through a serious injury just to bank £750,000 in a controversial exhibition event. Only days before, the former world No. 5 had pulled out of the 2014 Davis Cup with an arm problem.
Tsonga says the pain was so bad that he could barely hold a drink, let alone swing a racket. He was pulled out of France’s Davis Cup team after the first match. However, a major offer was then made for the 40-year-old to play in a lucrative exhibition event. Fearing the backlash from the media, Tsonga toyed with the choice between banking a huge sum of money and recovering from his injury. Speaking on Kevin Ferreira’s YouTube channel, Tsonga recalls: “I think particularly of a time when I was in the Davis Cup against the Swiss — my arm hurt, I couldn’t play, and everyone knew it.
“I played [the first match], and at one point I couldn’t even hold a glass to drink. I couldn’t play anymore.”
It was then that the offer over the exhibition was made. The event would involve five matches with short sets and a less strenuous week’s work, all for £750k.
He continued: “I received an offer to go play an exhibition with sets of four games, and five matches over a week. Since it’s an exhibition, whether I win or not, it doesn’t change anything.
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“I thought I’d get slammed [by the media] because it’s the week after the Davis Cup. But I told myself that I had to make a choice: Do I go for the money that will allow me to invest even more in my career and in myself, or do I not do it because there are people who won’t be happy — with the press surely coming down on me.’ At that moment. I chose to go for the million dollars.”
At the peak of his powers, Tsonga was best known for his powerful style of tennis. Although he never won a Grand Slam, he finished his career with 18 ATP titles. He also reached the final of the 2008 Australian Open, in which he was beaten by Novak Djokovic in four sets.
Tsonga, who was perhaps unfortunate to play in the era of the Big Three and Andy Murray, retired in 2022.
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