Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withdrew his name from the list of US Open participants on Monday.
The news doesn’t come as a surprise since the 33-year-old missed the previous two Grand Slams following knee surgery back in April. Australian James Duckworth will replace Tsonga in the main draw.
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The Frenchman is a former top 10 player whose ranking has dropped all the way down to 64th because of all the time he has spent off the tennis courts. He has played only six matches in 2018, the last one being an Open Sud de France loss to countrymate Lucas Pouille. At the Australian Open, he was knocked out in the third round by Nick Kyrgios.
Tsonga withdraws from 2018 US Open with knee injury
He posted a video on Twitter to make the announcement in which he said:
“It takes time to heal, and now I cannot compete so, unfortunately, I have to forfeit the US Open,”
“I am hopeful that I will be able to start again before the end of the season and to get back and play the next one [Slam] with certainty and in better conditions.
“It’s not easy – I will press on.”
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Tsonga’s Grand Slam career involves one final (2008 Australian Open loss to Novak Djokovic) and five semi-finals. None of them was at the US Open though, so he might not regret missing this tournament too much. He has two ATP Masters 1000 titles under his belt. The first one came in Paris (2008), where he beat David Nalbandian in three sets and the second one came in Toronto (2014) after a 7-5, 7-6 final win against Roger Federer.
US Open 2018 start date and top seeds
The US Open starts on Monday, August 27. Simona Halep and Rafael Nadal enter the tournament as the No.1 seeds. Nadal is the defending champion in the men’s section, having beaten Kevin Anderson in last year’s final, while Sloane Stephens defeated Madison Keys in an all-American final in the women’s section.