Only once in his career has Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lost when leading by two sets, and that was to Stanislas Wawrinka at Roland Garros in 2011. He came perilosuly close to repeating history yesterday and today, but ultimately overcame his demons and Wawrinka, 6-4, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 3-6, 6-4.
It looked initially like a straightforward match. Tsonga was more solid in the first set, with Wawrinka serving at an appalling 38 percent. After a rash of forehand errors gave up the break in the second, Tsonga led 6-4, 4-3 and was growing in confidence. The match took a turn, however, after Wawrinka consulted the trainer for what seemed to be a hamstring problem before Tsonga served for the second set. Tsonga lost his serve, and struggled to take the set to a tiebreak. When the Frenchman took the second set with two beautifully-worked exchanges, he seemed to have conquered his nerves, and the prospects for making his first Roland Garros quarterfinal looked good.
Wawrinka, however, was also bidding for his first quarterfinal appearance, and as he started to play better, Tsonga suddenly and completely fell apart. Putting a tame dropshot into the net to go 3-4 down, Tsonga was broken again to drop the third set. The first plaintive exclamations of ‘ah non!’ and mutterings between points were heard, Tsonga's shots began to look increasingly desperate, and Wawrinka soon led the fourth set by a double break. Tsonga lost eight games in a row and looked like a man trapped in his own personal nightmare.
If Wawrinka could have sustained his momentum, the fifth set might have been very different. Unfortunately for the Swiss No. 2, he gave up some poor backhand errors to be broken back once. It was just enough traction for Tsonga to begin to claw his way back into the match; he starting to play some more calm and patient points, and pressed hard on Wawrinka’s serve at the beginning of the fifth set.
As officials hovered at the back of the court like vultures, Tsonga broke to lead 3-1 after putting a testing backhand at the feet of the incoming Wawrinka, forcing a volley error. Wawrinka fought, earning a point for an immediate break back, but Tsonga’s forehand was firing, and he held with an ace before the match was called for darkness, leading 4-2.
Returning to a cold and gloomy Chatrier today, Tsonga was promptly broken to lose yet another lead. Still, having earned the advantage of serving first, Tsonga regrouped and went on the attack at 4-5 as the match clock ticked over to four hours. Sliding beautifully into a measured forehand winner for 30-30, Tsonga earned his first match point after taking pace off his groundstrokes and surprising Wawrinka into a backhand error. Wawrinka saved that one with aggressive play, but Tsonga pulled off a beautiful backhand pass for his second match point. This time, he anticipated Wawrinka’s backhand and put in one final fearsome forehand of his own.
Chatrier exploded as Tsonga fell to one knee on the clay, hiding his face before bounding across the court in celebration. After the agony of last year and a long, dark night faced with the possibility of repeating it, the moment must have felt like redemption.
