By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, May 31, 2015
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga failed to serve out the third set and was down a break in the fourth, but bounced back to beat Tomas Berdych and reach his third Roland Garros quarterfinal.
Photo credit: FFT
Sunday brunch was long done in Paris when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga served up a feast of emotional swings and eruptive shotmaking.
The 14th-seeded Frenchman veered from forceful to fretful and may have smelled some doubt on the verge of falling into a double-break stew in the fourth set. Then he cooked up a comeback winning five straight games to close out an adventure of a match.
Video: Tsonga Sends Message To Kid Who Cried After Not Getting His Autograph
Tsonga overcame a third-set stumble—and a 1-3 fourth-set deficit—to beat back Tomas Berdych, 6-3, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, and reach the French Open quarterfinals for the third time.
Fans are famished for a French finalist; Tsonga says his hunger is a driving force.
"There is one thing for sure. I want to win," said Tsonga, who missed the Australian Open with an arm injury that sidelined him until Miami in March. "I want to win as many matches as possible. It's been a while since I stopped playing or I have not been playing my best tennis, so I'm hungry. My main concern is to play good tennis."
The 2013 French Open semifinalist will play Kei Nishikori for a return to the final four.
The fifth-seeded Nishikori, who had a walkover into the fourth round, dismissed Teymuraz Gabashvili, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. The 2014 US Open finalist has not dropped a set advancing to his first Roland Garros quarterfinal.
Nishikori possesses one of the best two-handed backhands in the game and has used it to pressure Tsonga's weaker backhand wing, winning four of their five meetings.
"He's a very good player. He's younger than me," the 30-year-old Tsonga said. "He's got a lot of talent. He's able to do many things on court. I had problem to play against him in the past, so for me it's gonna be the opportunity, you know, to take revenge and try to, again, to play my best tennis and try to reach the semis."
Tsonga discarded a familiar nemesis today.
The fourth-seeded Czech took the court armed with a 6-2 career edge over Tsonga, including a 7-5, 6-2 fourth-round win in their lone clay-court meeting in Madrid earlier this month. Berdych's balance off both wings had helped him master Tsonga in the past.
The Tsonga serve was the key stroke in building a two-set lead. He faced just one break point in the first two sets and dropped just four points on serve in the second set.
Wearing black kinesiology on his back, Berdych looked constricted when Tsonga slahsed a forehand to close the second set. Drop-shotting off his opponent's second serve at one point and jolting a one-handed backhand pass down the line, Tsonga looked poised for a quick afternoon as he broke for a 5-4 third-set lead.
Closure was complicated. Tsonga scattered a double fault and pair of forehand errrors surrendering serve for the first time all day.
Down 0-3 in the tie break, Berdych reeled off six of the next seven points lashing a backhand strike down the line for double set point. When Tsonga netted a meek backhand on the second set point, there was a collective groan from the crowd as Berdych, who was on the edge of an exit minutes earlier, hijacked the set and carried his momentum into the fourt set.
Facing break point, Tsonga tapped a drop shot. Berdych read it, sped up to the ball and shoveled an angled forehand pass, breaking for a 2-1 fourth-set lead. There were hushed murmurs from the crowd, which had been ready to erupt when Tsonga served for it in the third. Even members of Tsonga's support box shifted a little uneasily in their seats.
Earning a break point in the fifth game, Berdych was on the verge of a two break lead to completely turn the match around.
Then Berdych blinked. Lining up his normally trusty two-handed backhand the Czech missed a clear shot on break point, eliciting a collective exhale from the pro-Tsonga crowd and hopeful bounce in Tsonga. The Frenchman grinded through a demanding hold for 2-3, then proceeded to pull away. A slip-up from Berdych saw him squander a 30-15 lead. Hitting off his back foot, he slapped a shot into net as Tsonga broke back for 3-3.
Two tight forehand errors from Berdych put the Czech in a break point hole in the eighth game. Tsonga got the forehand he wanted and wailed a winner into the corner breaking for 5-3. That massive blow left a flat-footed Berdych looking as dejected as a weary commuter realizing he'd missed the last night train home.
"I was just trying to hang in there as much as I could," Berdych said afterward. "But definitely I was way far from my best tennis that I can play, and it's definitely a very disappointing loss for me. It's not the time that I want to go home from this event. But yeah, that's how it is. I need to take that."
Serving for the match a second time, Tsonga was unwavering. He thumped his 13th ace of the day down the middle that kicked up a bit of red dust for triple match point.
A pair of punishing forehands down the line finally ended it. Tsonga made what might have been a straight sets cruise a much more arduous adventure but launched himself into the air in his signature victory leap. Then he waved his towel like a corner man cooling down a boxer lead the crowd in a celebratory cheer. He knows he may need to ride that home wave against Nishikori, who successfully defended his Barcelona title on clay earlier this month.
"There is always pride. Is it justified pride? I don't know," Tsonga said of playing at home. "But when I come here in Paris at Roland Garros, I want to prove to everyone that I'm a good tennis player and that I mostly want to fight for the top matches, for the top places. So pride, call it whatever, when I'm here I want to be in the forefront."