Tsonga hires Rasheed.

[Paul Murphy]

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has hired Australian Roger Rasheed as his new coach, L’Equipe reports.

Tsonga has been without a coach for about a year and a half, while Rasheed stopped coaching Tsonga’s countryman Gael Monfils in July of 2011 after three years together. Tsonga, currently ranked No. 7, had been the only member of the Top 10 without a coach. Tsonga’s last coach was Eric Winogradsky.

While Tsonga has done reasonably well on his own, winning four titles in the past two years, the 2008 Australian Open finalist has grown frustrated that he has been unable to win a Masters Series or Grand Slam title recently, during the reign of tennis’ so-called Big Four: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray.

Rasheed is known to be a good motivator and has reportedly been working with Tsonga this week in Paris ahead of the Bercy Masters, which begins on Monday. He also coached former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt from mid-2003 to 2007.

Tennis.com

Good move by Tsonga - his game has stagnated - he needs something or someone to push him onwards and upwards.

 

[-RF-]

Who???

 

[Paul Murphy]

Who???

Perhaps you've heard of Lleyton Hewitt and Gael Monfils.
Rasheed used to coach both of them.

 

[Paul Murphy]

Sorry, didn't mean to sound arch with my reply.
Rasheed is well known in Australia - much less so overseas obviously.

 

[Gonzo_style]

Good for JTW, hoping for his good result in WTFs, he played great last year, he's nice guy and i love his playing style!

 

[tennisaddict]

Rasheed is rated very highly by Cahill , Gilbert and other coaches.

Have seen him in interviews making lot of sense on the Tennis Channel.

Cahill had suggested Rasheed for Tomic for the next year.

May be just the sounding board that Tsonga needs for the big push at the majors.

 

[RAFA2005RG]

Rasheed is the guy that took Hewitt from number 1 to number 70, and failed miserably with Monfils. I know the guy, he's a former....fitness trainer.

That's cool. I've never liked Tsonga anyway.

 

[Paul Murphy]

I'm just glad he's finally signed a coach.
He needs one.

 

[Cup8489]

Rasheed is the guy that took Hewitt from number 1 to number 70, and failed miserably with Monfils. I know the guy, he's a former....fitness trainer.

That's cool. I've never liked Tsonga anyway.

So who could do better? LOL. This guy.

 

[SoBad]

Rasheed has only 3.5 stars on the amazon customer review board. Tsonga should hire a nutrition consultant instead and lose the gut.

 

[nereis]

Rasheed has had the misfortune of working with someone who lost his career to injuries in Hewitt and someone who is just plain uncoachable in Monfils. He's a very good coach that most players in the world would pay good money to train under over the off season.

 

[kishnabe]

Rasheed is the guy that took Hewitt from number 1 to number 70, and failed miserably with Monfils. I know the guy, he's a former....fitness trainer.

That's cool. I've never liked Tsonga anyway.

Rasheed took Hewitt to the 2004 US and 2005 Aussie final. Made Hewitt play better tennis that he did in his slam winning years.

Monfils....at least Rasheed took him up to top ten and the French Open semifinals.

 

[Rjtennis]

Rasheed has only 3.5 stars on the amazon customer review board. Tsonga should hire a nutrition consultant instead and lose the gut.

Tsonga definetly doesn't have a gut, he is just a bit more muscular than he needs to be which holds him back. Rasheed is a great choice for Tsonga.

 

[Deleted member 307496]

Rasheed is the guy that took Hewitt from number 1 to number 70, and failed miserably with Monfils. I know the guy, he's a former....fitness trainer.

That's cool. I've never liked Tsonga anyway.

Hewitt never dropped back that far in the time period Rasheed coached him. Hewitt slipped back to #17 at the end of 2003, mainly because he didn't participate in the Tennis Masters Cup which he won the year before. But, when he came back in 2004 he ended the year at #3, nearly edging out Roddick for the #2 ranking. He also made it to the finals of the Tennis Masters Cup in 2004, losing to Federer.

Rasheed also helped Hewitt make it to the Australian Open finals, when beforehand Hewitt had not made it past the 4th round. Hewitt bulked up, and with his "fitness training" help, Rasheed enabled Hewitt to add more power to his game. This showed when he defeated Roddick, #2 at the time, in four sets in the semifinals, stealing his #2 ranking as a result.

Don't forget, Roddick was a contender for the title. And because of Hewitt, Roddick never became #2 again. This is all because of Rasheed, without him he would have been struggling to find form. (See: 2008-9).

 

[*Sparkle*]

I can't say I have any knowledge of Rasheed's coaching abilities, but Tsonga does need someone or something to give him a bit more direction. He seems to have been drifting lately and it would be a waste if he were to drift down the rankings and out of the top 8/10.

 

[Tcbtennis]

Great news. Tsonga with all his talent and athleticism has been underachieving, in my opinion. He has done well to keep himself in the Top 10 without a coach but sometimes when I watch him, he looks lost. He has the ability to beat any of the Top 4 but seems clueless as to how to do it. I hope that Rasheed is able to harness Tsonga, help him focus and get rid of the one handed backhand. As an aside, the Tsonga/Rasheed pairing is definitely the best looking player/coach combo on the tour.

 

[Marcus2137]

I've been hoping for something like this for Tsonga for a while also. I'm no expert, but I see someone with incredible physical talent/skill/strength, but who beats himself mentally constantly. When Tsonga is up and having fun, he's tough for anyone to handle. But his attitude/mood is directly connected to his body, more than many others, and as soon as he struggles a little and gets down, he falls into a pit of UE and very poor shot selection.

I think one of the things that makes Fed great is his consistency, REGARDLESS of his mood. I think that Murray is finally growing up and starting to isolate his mood from his game, maybe thanks to his coach.

So I hope Tsonga can do the same thing. If Rasheed can get Tsonga to be aware of how his mood affects his game, detach his emotions and his play, and possibly even learn to use his frustration in a healthy way; I see great things for Tsonga.

Physically, it's easy to see how great he can be. He reminds me often of Safin; Raw strength controlled by weak emotional discipline that blows too many games. I think the only real difference is that Safin let his anger/frustration blow games, Tsonga's weakness seems to be more of depressive/overwhelmed/giving up-type of weakness.

Excited to see what happens

 

[NDFM]

So glad to hear this, he needs a coach based on his results this year.

 

[RCizzle65]

Hmmm, he didn't do much for Monfils, but I guess we'll see how he does for Tsonga.