Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Explains Why Rafael Nadal Lost at the 2009 French Open

Spanish superstar Rafael Nadal has been the king at Roland Garros winning 12 titles there. In addition to this, he has only lost 2 times there which is absolutely amazing. One of those times was way back in 2009 when he lost to Robin Soderling in the 4th round.

People have given many reasons explaining why he lost then like the weather conditions were not favoring him. But French tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has a different explanation. Check it out.

Why Rafael Nadal Lost in 2009

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had a recent live stream on Twitch. In the stream, he talked about why Rafael Nadal lost and said,

“Rafa will never speak about this, but when he lost to Soderling at the French Open in 2009, we all knew he was sick. He had a bad throat and did not feel well at all. That’s the truth.”

We don’t know if Tsonga is right as Rafa is the only one who can tell if it’s true. But considering the fact that Rafa won a lot of clay-court titles before coming into the French Open, this seems to be a plausible explanation.

The one thing we can say for sure is that Rafa was not happy after this defeat. He wanted to come back in the strongest possible way and he did. From 2010 to 2014, Rafa won 5 straight titles at the French Open.

At the 2015 French Open, Rafa suffered his 2nd loss at the French Open. He was clearly not playing well that year and he faced Novak Djokovic who was in the form of his life. He lost in straight sets which is something nobody expected.

Like always, Rafa made another comeback. He pulled out of the 2016 French Open due to an injury but in 2017 he won his 10th title without dropping a set and won 2 more titles after that.

The French Open is like Rafa’s home which is why we can always expect him to be the one who has the best chance of winning it. Hopefully, he wins more in the coming years.