SANS FILET VERSUS - Noah vs Tsonga : qui est le meilleur ?
·1 hr 29 min·7 clips
Noah came back from 0-2 sets down at the US Open and scolded his opponent for insulting his family.
1. SANS FILET hosts Fred Verdier and Benoît compare Yannick Noah and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga across five competitive aptitudes in a Versus episode format.
2. Fred Verdier, a former tennis journalist who covered both players live, and Benoît, a co-host, each assign independent scores before a Winamis audience poll resolves disagreements.
3. The episode's core question is whether Noah's era-defining personality and net-game mastery outweigh Tsonga's raw statistical superiority on serve and right-hand power.
4. On serve, Benoît and Fred both rate Noah at 8, crediting his extraordinary kick serve on clay and hard courts and his chip-and-charge net presence, while noting he was rarely an ace-seeker.
5. Fred rates Tsonga's serve at 9, citing a 2007 Australian Open first-round match where Tsonga — a wild-card outside the top 200 — held Roddick through an entire set and won the tie-break.
6. A listener-submitted stat reveals Tsonga won 87% of his career service games, just 1% below Federer, and took 78% of first-ball points — figures the hosts describe as remarkable for a player who 'couldn't get below 90 kilos.'
7. Noah receives 10 out of 10 for style, with the hosts invoking his Cameroonian bandeau, custom outfits, and the cultural freedom of the 1980s as factors that would be impossible for a Black French player to replicate today.
8. Tsonga's style score is disputed at 7 versus 8, with Fred arguing Tsonga abandoned early extroversion — including a Muhammad Ali thumb-dance he performed in 2008 — partly due to social pressure and partly because his career was interrupted by a severe disc injury that began before he could establish a full identity.
9. Fred recalls Tsonga describing an early career spinal condition (described as 'Ernie Discal or something') that left him unsure whether he could continue as a professional player.
10. The right-hand category gives Noah a 6 and Tsonga a 9, with the hosts noting Noah's right-hand was a construction tool to reach the net rather than a weapon, while Jimmy Arias, Aaron Krickstein, and Agassi were all able to exploit it.
11. Fred awards Tsonga 9 on the right-hand specifically for his ability to shift direction — hitting cross-court angles and down-the-line winners off neutral balls — a skill he argues Noah rarely displayed.
12. The audience-relationship category is scored 10 for Noah by both hosts with no disagreement, a consensus the hosts describe as unprecedented in the episode.
13. Fred recounts a US Open night-session match where Noah trailed Mansdorf 0-2 in sets, rallied the crowd after Mansdorf insulted Noah's courtside family, and at the net post-match physically held Mansdorf's hand while publicly rebuking him.
14. A second Noah audience story describes him playing three Roland Garros matches on a damaged Achilles tendon, defeating Fernando Luna while visibly grimacing, the crowd growing louder with each grimace.
15. Fred also describes Noah's Davis Cup captaincy as having a public magnetism beyond any other French captain, calling him 'a lighthouse' for both players and spectators.
16. The hosts note that Noah was more popular in New York than in France at certain points of his career, drawing crowds at La Quinta, Key Biscayne, and South Orange who 'didn't come to see tennis.'
17. Tsonga's audience relationship is rated 7, with Fred noting Tsonga could have scored higher but rarely activated the theatrical persona that his early career promised.
18. The episode alternates between statistical precision — win percentages, serve speeds, career records — and first-person anecdotes, with Fred frequently invoking specific match years and opponent names as evidence.
19. Tennis fans who followed both players in real time will find the argument dense and reference-heavy; those who know the players only by reputation will still follow the anecdotes.
20. Listeners who prefer data-only analysis or are unfamiliar with French tennis from the 1980s through 2010s may find the nostalgic tangents slow.
