While Stan Wawrinka was blowing Roger Federer away in straight sets on Court Suzanne Lenglen, the gale that whipped through the French Open on day 10 came perilously close to doing the same job on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The Frenchman was cruising at a set and 5-2 up against Kei Nishikori in his quarter-final on the tournament’s main court, when, during the changeover, a strong gust loosened an oblong-shaped sheet-metal panel, which was held by nine-inch spikes to the superstructure of the large replay screen in the western corner of the stand, and sent it crashing 50 feet into a group of maybe 100 spectators. With it went Tsonga’s equilibrium.
Three spectators were cut, bruised, shaken and taken to hospital. Everyone else returned after a half-hour delay for running repairs to the stadium but the Frenchman’s tennis also needed attention.
His progress towards a semi-final place against Wawrinka – which had looked a formality before the interruption – was now in jeopardy. Japan’s Nishikori, without the anxiety of protecting a lead in front of a home crowd hungry for success at their own tournament, began to hit with freedom and precision. Tsonga wobbled.
He recovered his composure after a worryingly long dip to win 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 in three hours and 45 minutes. So what had looked like a stroll at the start before turning into a fierce battle with his opponent, the elements and his own faltering confidence, ended like a soothing zephyr.
Tsonga celebrated by scribbling “I love you Roland” on the clay.
Federer, similarly, struggled with an eddying breeze that cut across Lenglen, interfering with probably the most sophisticated touch in tennis since the Czech Miroslav Mecir, who was known to his French fans as Le Prestidigitateur.
The raw power of Federer’s compatriot did not help, either. Lenglen, the second show court at Roland Garros, is more exposed than Chatrier but Wawrinka’s strong, flat groundstrokes to a large extent took the wind out of the equation.
Federer, in his 17th consecutive visit, probably expected to be on Chatrier, where he has played most of his matches when reaching the second week. It made little difference, as he conceded later (grateful, no doubt, to miss the distraction of falling metal).
“It’s just nice for [Wawrinka] to string it together on a big occasion like this at the French, where I always thought he’d have his best chance to do well,” he said. As for what contributed to his defeat, he offered: “Mostly it’s because of Stan’s quality of shot-making, forehand, backhand, serving big when he had to. For me it was trying to hang on.”
Despite Federer’s best efforts to mix it up, the ball would not drop kindly for him often enough, either short or long. He saved set point on his serve for 4-5, but Wawrinka was relentless.
While there was little in it from that point until the end, after two hours and nine minutes that must have seemed far longer to the players, his face lit up the court in celebration of a near-flawless 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 victory, only his third in 19 matches against Federer, all of them on clay, but this the first in a slam.
Nine times in his storied career Federer has come back from two sets down, although he could not make up the deficit against Andreas Seppi in the third round in Melbourne this year, nor here against Tsonga in the quarter-finals two years ago. He’s nearly 34. Such feats get tougher – and Wawrinka, one of the Tour’s most physical players, was just too strong for him.
Federer forced a tie-break in the third after 40 minutes of some times brutal exchanges and, with the crowd almost totally with him, the tension mounted to serious levels – for spectators and combatants. They crossed at 3-3 – and drama struck. Wawrinka’s forehand hit the line, it was called out, fractionally after Federer hit the ball wide, it seemed. The point stood.
He observed later: “I would have to see it again on replay. I hope it wasn’t a mistake and, if it was, it was obviously a costly one for me.
There was a call … as I’m hitting it. Does it throw you off or not? I don’t know. But that’s the rule: if it was during the shot [or] just before, it’s replayed. I hope it was after.”
Wawrinka led 5-3 and, breathing heavily, held his nerve, finishing the job with a smart volley at the net – where the Swiss friends embraced.
It was the first time in 291 slam matches stretching back to the US Open in 2002 in which Federer had failed to break his opponent at least once. That is some statistic. But, as Federer said, the day belonged to Wawrinka, who has had the burden of intrusions on his personal life to contend with, and now he wore a smile in the environment where he has always felt most comfortable.
If Wawrinka and Tsonga can reproduce some of this tennis in the semi-final, it will be a match to remember. Wawrinka thinks so. “It’s going to be exciting,” he said. “Jo is a really strong player. He’s been struggling a little bit since Toronto last year with injury and up and down tennis but, in the French Open, in a grand slam, he’s always there, always playing really well. He already played a semi-final here a few years ago. I saw him a lot this tournament. I think he’s happy and strong mentally.”
