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Journalism of Courage
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga followed his week of big upsets with an early exit Tuesday, losing his opening match at the Western & Southern Open. Two days after he won his second Masters title by beating Roger Federer in Toronto, he fell to Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-4.
“I don’t have the energy to compete,” Tsonga said after the 68-minute match. “I just gave everything last week. Before the match, I believed I was able to play at a good level. But on court, I realized that was going to be impossible. And it was.”
Venus Williams beat sister Serena while reaching the finals in Montreal on Sunday, finishing runner-up. She lost to Lucie Safarova 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4 in the first round here Tuesday. “I wish I could have felt today like I did in Montreal, just to make it more competitive,” Williams said.
The tournament lost its other defending champion when Victoria Azarenka withdrew because of an injured right knee. Defending champion Rafael Nadal withdrew before the tournament because of an injured wrist.
Fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova broke Madison Keys to go up 3-0 in the final set and held on for a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win that was gratifying. She was coming off a loss in the third round at Montreal. “I didn’t have a great week last week,” she said. “No matter who is across the net, it’s never easy going out in the first round because you want to change that result around. You want to change your attitude and your performance and obviously the result.”
Williams and Tsonga had energizing weeks in Canada and hoped to keep their momentum going in Cincinnati, using it as a springboard to the U.S. Open. Both soon realized their successful weeks came with a cost.
Williams arrived Sunday night and opened Tuesday morning, leaving little time to recover from her deep tournament run. “Yeah, it was definitely a quick turnaround,” she said. “Maybe it would have been a little better to play a little later in the day. But I think she just played so well. No matter what shot I hit, she hit a winner.”
Safarova led 5-2 in the third set and appeared to have won a match point, but Williams challenged and the call was overturned. Williams rallied to win the game and then another. “That’s a terrible feeling,” Safarova said. “You think you’ve won and you have those emotions, and suddenly, you’re back in the match against a great player. Then she broke me, and I thought, ‘Uh, oh.’ I’ve lost matches on challenges before. I told myself, ‘I’m not losing this one.’”
Tsonga arrived Monday and couldn’t practice because of rain. He plans to rest for a few days. “I didn’t have enough today to compete at a good level,” he said.
Azarenka’s withdrawal is the latest setback in a season of injuries. She aggravated an injury to her right knee at Montreal, where she lost in the quarterfinals.
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi suffered a 5-7 2-6 first round loss to Vasek Pospisil of Canada and Jack Sock of the United States yesterday. Pospisil-Sock next meet fifth seeds Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek.
