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[correction!] Tennis player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was a sensation on the courts last week, working his way up from the lower ranks to defeating Rafael Nadal Roger Federer, which is a sure way to get into the news, and then playing in the final of the Australian Open.

He was making news of another sort at the same time, in Switzerland: naming himself as La Rippe‘s newest French resident. The small Vaudois village, above Nyon and on the border with France, was as surprised as anyone else when first Reuters announced the news, then Eurosport: Reuters officially listed Tsonga’s residence as La Rippe in their factbox. Eurosport announced it on air during the match with Federer.

Swiss newspaper Le Matin, unable to confirm the rumour over
the weekend, tucked the news onto page 46 of its weekend section. It
quoted the town’s mayor as saying it was news to him, but he’d
certainly welcome Tsonga.

GenevaLunch’s sports writer, Graham Dunbar, Monday morning talked to
the president of La Rippe’s village library, Marie-Pascal Connolly
Monnier, who is also an English teacher. She, too, said she had not
heard about Tsonga moving in, and could not think of a house that’s for
sale, either. In a town of 1,000, people know these things. No one was
expecting Tsonga to buy a Michael Schumacher style mansion, but top tennis players presumably buy houses.

Tuesday morning, Le Matin
confirmed that Tsonga did indeed register as a La Rippe resident last
week, giving an address where the paper says he will be renting a
studio.

That was last week. He lost the final, but he made it that far, and
his income now promises to move up from the studio-rental category. And
moving to Switzerland just might have something to do with saving money
on taxes, but we wouldn’t want to be the first to suggest that, of
course.

Pre-finals interview by X-Tennis with Tsonga

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