In 5:09, Wawrinka edges Tsitsipas at French Open—and gets Federer next

Stan Wawrinka and Stefanos Tsitsipas had never played each other before Sunday, and when they finally met, they competed like it was the only chance they'll ever get.

Stan won the first set, 7-6? Stefanos won the second, 7-5. Wawrinka won the third set, 6-4? Tsitsipas won the fourth, 6-3. They split the first 12 games of the fifth set. No one could distance themselves from the other by any significant margin. If this match was a best-of-seven, like the ongoing Stanley Cup Final and NBA Finals, they'd surely still be out on Court Suzanne Lenglen, trading games and sets like they traded searing groundstrokes in one of this 5:09 match's dozens of jaw-dropping rallies.

But one of tennis' great ironies is that a match which featured 389 total points came down to just a handful. Wawrinka saved eight break points in the fifth set, none more impressive than the sixth, at 5-5, with an exchange of shots so demanding that Tsitsipas ended up face up, on the terre battue. Stan held his fist up, ready for more.

Was he ever. After returning a serve long on his first match point at 7-6, 15-40, Wawrinka used his famous one-handed backhand not to smack a winner crosscourt, but to carve a slice backhand—one that curved around the net post, and delicately caught the sideline.

7-6 (6), 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 8-6. It was worth the wait.

"I feel exhausted, said Tsitsipas when it was over. "I don't know. Never experienced something like this in my life. I feel very disappointed at the end.

"Long time that—long time since I cried after a match, so emotionally wasn't easy to handle. I will try to learn from it as much as I can."

The quality of this match befitted a final, and it may very well not be topped for the remainder of the tournament. Tsitsipas fired 61 winners and won 195 total points—one more than Wawrinka, who won 194, 62 with winners.

Maybe Wawrinka will be in the final, although it will require a win over Roger Federer in the quarterfinals (who won his fourth-round match in just an hour and 42 minutes) and almost certainly Rafael Nadal in the semifinals. Maybe that seems like an impossibility, given the energy Stan exerted today.

But after watching this display, anything seems possible for Wawrinka now.