French Tennis Federation reject Tsonga's Australian Open wild card appeal

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played some of his best tennis ever at the Australian Open. His only final at a grand slam came in 2008 in Australia when he lost to Novak Djokovic. The 36-year old has not played much lately as his career is slowly coming to an end but he admitted in a recent interview he hoped to get a wild card into the Australian Open.

It was supposed to be somewhat of a goodbye from the Frenchman who is unsure how much longer he will play. Instead of him, the wild card went to Lucas Pouille which was confirmed by the tennis player himself.

Tsonga launched an appeal to the decision by it was rejected by the French Tennis Federation. In a recent talk with Tour le Sport, Tsonga said:

"I just want to play. Several times I wondered if I should continue if my motivation still existed and I must say that it is intact. In the end, what drives me is passion."

Tsonga knows retiremenet is very close but the Frenchman is not afraid of hanging it up. On that he said:

"I'm not afraid.I know when I'm going to stop but I want to keep it to myself."