Australian Open 2017: 8 Patchy Players Who Could Surprise You

#3. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga

Tsonga will be a player to be wary of at the Australian Open

The Frenchman made headlines by reaching the final of the Australian Open in 2008, beating Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals. Tsonga soon established himself as a formidable opponent and barring the US Open, he has reached at least the semi-finals of all three Grand Slams. However, Tsonga hasn’t been able to showcase his full potential partly due to the domination of the Big Four and partly due to his inconsistency during certain periods.Tsonga had a decent tour last year where he reached the semi-finals of the Monte-Carlo Masters and the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon and US Open in addition to three Masters 1000 tournaments. Tsonga’s only negative was his adductor injury which resulted in him retiring from his third round match at the French Open as a result of which, he could not defend his semi-final points from last year and subsequently his rankings dropped down from 7^th to 12^th.The Australian Open is Tsonga’s favorite Grand Slam tournament where he reached the final in 2008, the semi-finals in 2010, and the quarter-finals in 2009 and 2013. Last year, he reached the fourth round where he was defeated by Kei Nishikori in straight sets. This year, Tsonga is seeded 12^th at the Australian Open and has been drawn in Section 4 of the main draw. Tsonga will begin his campaign against Thiago Monteiro and will be expected to win with ease.Tsonga’s first big challenge of the tournament will come in the third round where he would face Jack Sock who has had a good year so far, having won the Hopman Cup with Coco Vandeweghe and having reached the final of the Auckland Open. However, Tsonga’s unbeaten record against Sock makes him a firm favorite to take the match. Tsonga would then face a much bigger challenge in the fourth round where he would be up against Marin Cilic whom Tsonga last defeated in 2011.Although Cilic lost his first match of the year at the Chennai Open, the kind of form he has been in since the past couple of months makes him a pretty dangerous opponent. Nevertheless, Tsonga is bound to give him a tough fight and shouldn’t be much of a surprise if he manages to beat him.If Tsonga manages to reach the quarter-finals then he would face 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka who won the last three meetings between the two. Although Tsonga will not be expected to go further than the quarter-finals, a player with his attributes can never written and when he’s at the top of his game, he can be a match for any player.