JUST BEFORE 6pm on day 10 at Roland Garros, the light was fading as fast as the aura of two of the greatest players to grace the game.
The world number one, Novak Djokovic, and the world number three, Roger Federer, found themselves in roughly similar holes at around about the same time on courts no more than a couple of hundred yards apart, but with contrasting challenges, as they fought separately and desperately to stay in the French Open, hoping to meet each other in the semi-finals on Friday.
Three hours later, give or take a few minutes and much drama, they had accomplished it.
However, in the early stages of their twin odyssey, it looked grim for both of them. On Court Philippe Chatrier, in front of the same sort of baying crowd that had simultaneously abused yet inspired Andy Murray the night before, Djokovic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were a set apiece and their quarter-final was going to serve midway through the third. The French man was marginally in better shape. Djokovic looked worried, and with good reason.
On Court Suzanne Lenglen, Federer was two sets down to Juan Martin del Potro after losing a scintillating tie-break. Underlining the tension of the match, Federer did something he has not done, probably, since his teenage days of racket-throwing: he screamed, “Shut up” at the crowd after netting a backhand at the end of a rally in which his previous shot had gone perilously close to the baseline.
Within half an hour or so, Djokovic was in danger of drowning in the drizzle that bathed Chatrier, as Tsonga conjured a piece of running, cross-court magic that left the Serb speechless and rooted to the spot 10 feet from the net in centre court.
About that time, Federer, who has come from two sets down six times in his career, was easing into his fightback, as he took the third set from a distracted del Potro, then broke him at the start of the fourth. The greater emotional content filled Chatrier where the crowd, who had invested so much misguided faith in Richard Gasquet against Murray, now gave Tsonga, an equally unreliable yet enchanting talent, their full-throated approval.
The quiet and ruthless execution was on Lenglen as Federer cruised through his assassin’s repertoire, and the Argentinian floundered badly, and again the two matches converged in the running pageant. As Tsonga served with stunning power to hold for 4-3 in the fourth, Del Potro, his strapped left leg plainly troubling him, was broken as Federer levelled to two sets apiece.
This was now a fascinating race to the first kill. The odds, surely, were on Federer, whose task was to embarrass a one-legged man in the concluding set. But Federer, whose record in five-setters is a curiously ordinary 18-16 (although 4-0 here), needed a couple of deuce points to hold at the start of the fifth, before closing it out.
On Chatrier, there was a twist and a tumble as Djokovic, getting up from an awkward fall in which he looked as if he had hyper-extended his right leg, emerged from the mini-doldrums to break back for 4-4 in the fourth. Reaching for his fourth grand slam in a row, Djokovic had to hold serve to stay in the match and the tournament. When he murdered a simple volley after clipping the net, he gave Tsonga two match points and the stadium fell to a hush. He dodged the first bullet with a volley, and the next one, clipping the net with a ripped forehand behind a big serve, before levelling at 5-5. When asked a second time to keep his championship hopes alive, Djokovic flirted with the lines, just as he did to survive then thrive against Federer in the semi-finals in New York last September. But Tsonga hit a backhand cross-court for his third match point – and netted a forehand for deuce. He got it back to win a rally that sent Chatrier delirious, a fourth match point – and Djokovic smashed to save.
Djokovic, looking frayed and buoyed by turn in the tie-break, engaged in several titanic rallies before Tsonga netted a return and the match went to a fifth set.
At the end, the Frenchman was spent, barely reaching 100 miles an hour on his serve.
Djokovic broke him again, before serving out. The Frenchman lost – but did not surrender like Gasquet the night before. Djokovic got his first match point at about 7.08pm. Within seconds, the match was his.
Guardian Service
