His father moved to France during the 1970s to fulfill his dreams of becoming a handball great, where he eventually met Évelyne and they married.
Tsonga is nicknamed Ali because of his facial resemblance to boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
Tsonga has a younger brother (Enzo) who, much like Jo, has been inspired to play sports and is part of the French basketball program (junior).
He also has an elder sister (Sasha) who is less involved with sporting ventures.
His footballing cousin is Maël Lépicier who plays for Congo.
Tsonga and Gaël Monfils developed a good friendship from a young age, when they enjoyed mimicking all the tennis greats of the past.
1985
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player.
Tsonga was born on 17 April 1985 in Le Mans to a Congolese father, Didier Tsonga, a handball player and a French mother, Évelyne Tsonga.
2000
Tsonga played his first junior match in July 2000 at the age of 15 at a grade 2 tournament in the Netherlands.
2002
Australian Open: SF (2002, 2003)
2003
In his early career, Tsonga won the 2003 US Open junior singles title and was the ATP Newcomer of the Year for 2007.
Tsonga had a career-high ITF junior singles ranking of world No. 2, attained on 13 October 2003.
He won the 2003 US Open boys' singles title.
He reached four other singles semifinals of junior Grand Slam events.
Marcos Baghdatis was a major rival of Tsonga on the junior tour.
He had a very successful junior career; he won the US Open boys' singles title in 2003 by defeating Marcos Baghdatis in the final and he was a losing boys' singles semifinalist in the other three Grand Slam events in the same year.
Tsonga reached his career-high boys' singles ranking of world no. 2 on 13 October 2003.
Junior Grand Slam results – Singles:
French Open: SF (2003)
Wimbledon: SF (2003)
2008
He rose to fame by reaching the 2008 Australian Open final as an unseeded player, defeating four seeded players (including world No. 2 Rafael Nadal) en route.
He followed by winning his first Masters title at the 2008 Paris Masters, and reached the final of the 2011 ATP Finals.
His best performances at the majors since 2008 were semifinal appearances at the 2010 Australian Open, the 2013 and 2015 French Open and at Wimbledon in 2011 and 2012.
Tsonga is one of only three players (the others being Tomáš Berdych and Stan Wawrinka) to have major wins against each of the Big Four.
He is a member of the Tennis Club de Paris.
2009
In doubles, he won the 2009 Shanghai Masters doubles title partnering Julien Benneteau.
2011
Tsonga also reached the final of the 2011 Paris Masters and the 2015 Shanghai Masters.
2012
He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012.
Tsonga won 18 singles titles on the ATP Tour, including two Masters 1000 titles.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Tsonga won the silver medal in men's doubles partnering Michaël Llodra.
2014
He claimed his second Masters title at the 2014 Canadian Open, defeating four top-ten players en route.
Tsonga started dating Noura El Shwekh (she is of Swiss nationality) from late 2014.
She frequently accompanied him on the ATP tour while they were dating.
2016
In November 2016, Tsonga announced that the couple were expecting their first child.
2017
In 2017, Tsonga helped France to its first Davis Cup win in 16 years, after being runner-up in 2014.
He retired from the sport at the 2022 French Open.
Tsonga has reached the quarterfinal stage of all four majors.
Their first child, a boy named Sugar, was born on 17 March 2017.
2018
Tsonga and El Shwekh married on 21 July 2018 in a ceremony held at the Château de Bagnols (fr), which was constructed in the 13th century and located in the department of Rhône.
Pictures of the couple's marriage ceremony were posted on Tsonga's Twitter account on the afternoon of Monday, 23 July 2018 with the caption, "We are family".
