Muhammad Ali storms into the final

France is in the grips of tennis fever at the moment following the exploits of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament in Australia.

The 22-year-old, who bears an uncanny physical resemblance to boxing legend Muhammad Ali, has knocked out his fair share of seeded players along the way.

It all started out just under two weeks ago, when he claimed his first scalp, the great hope of Britain, Andy Murray, in the first round. And since then there’s been no stopping the previously unsung hero of the court.

In the fourth round he beat French number one, and eighth seeded Richard Gasquet in a four-set tussle, and in the quarterfinals put on a sumptuous power display to dump 14th seed Mikhail Youzhny out of the tournament.

And then on Thursday, Tsonga overturned all the experts’ expectations by crushing the world’s number two, Rafal Nadal, in just over two hours to claim his place in Sunday’s final, where he’ll face third-ranked Novak Djokovic.

Although ranked just 38th going into the tournament, Tsonga’s arrival at the top level should not really come as that much of a surprise to aficionados of the game.

He’s part of the same generation of talented young French players such as Gael Monfils and sometimes doubles partner Richard Gasquet, and first came to prominence in 2003 when he won the US Open junior title and reached the semi-finals of three other junior Grand Slams.

Although he turned professional in 2004, a string of back and shoulder injuries threatened to put a halt to a promising career and kept him somewhat in the shadows of the better known Monfils and Gasquet. By the end of 2006 he had only competed in eight tournaments, ranking outside of the world’s top 200 and only earning a wildcard into last year’s draw Down Under.

The turnaround began last year, when he won four Challenger series titles – a sort of second tier for professionals who don’t quite make the grade with the big money-earners. He also beat Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt to reach the third round of the Queen’s tournament in London and followed it up by reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon.

Thursday’s win over Nadal was an awesome show of strength and precision, with Tsonga conceding just seven games as he took sweet revenge for his straight sets defeat by the Spaniard in the third round of last year’s US Open.

Commentators back home went ballistic as the Frenchmen thumped home a series of winners (49 to Nadal’s 13) and out-Aced the Spaniard 17-2.

Beaming from ear to ear the young Frenchman punched the air after his victory, earned a standing ovation from the packed 15,000-strong Rod Laver Arena and heaps of praise from a sporting Nadal.

Whatever the outcome of Sunday’s final, there’ll be a new name on the winner’s roll of honours. Tsonga’s father, the former Congo-Brazzaville international handball player, Didier, and his mother, Evelyne, - both teachers in the French town of Le Mans, will be making the trip Down Under to see their son take on Djokovic. The two men have never played each other before.

And the French public television channel, France 3, has cleared its morning schedules to broadcast the match live and capture what would be the first singles title for a Frenchman at the Australian Open since Jean Borotra in 1928.

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