Tsonga Stuns Federer at Wimbledon

Pete Sampras, the greatest men’s player of the 1990s, has seen his records fall like dominoes to Roger Federer, but he still has the historical edge at Wimbledon.

Federer, a six-time champion at the All England Club, remains one title behind his American friend Sampras, and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the powerful Frenchman, made certain it stayed that way by doing what no man has ever done against Federer in a Grand Slam tournament.

Until Wednesday’s quarterfinals, Federer was an astonishing 178-0 when he won the first two sets of a Grand Slam singles match. But Tsonga — with his potent serve, percussive forehand and footspeed — put an end to that streak: rallying to win, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, on Centre Court.

“I think my game was plenty good enough this year to win the tournament, but unfortunately there’s only one who can win it, and the rest go home empty-handed,” Federer said. “That’s what happened to me today, but Jo played an amazing match.”

For his efforts, Tsonga, a 26-year-old Frenchman seeded 12th here, will get to play Novak Djokovic in the semifinals on Friday.

Djokovic had surprising difficulty on Wednesday against the 18-year-old Australian qualifier Bernard Tomic. He shouted after errors and was left sprawling on the grass at one stage after Tomic surprised him — not for the only time — with a quick change of direction.

But Djokovic got up, sportingly applauded the winner and kept grinding away from the baseline and was eventually rewarded with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory.

“He was not making a lot of unforced errors from the baseline, and that made my life very difficult,” Djokovic told the BBC. “I tried to change the pace, but he was better at that. We were playing cat and mouse.”

Djokovic, the second seed, has never been past the semifinals at Wimbledon and has not yet shown the sparkling form that helped him win 41 straight matches to start the season before Federer stopped his run in the semifinals of this year’s French Open. But there will be no rematch with Federer at the All England Club. Instead, Djokovic ‘s semifinal will be a reprise of the 2008 Australian Open final in which Djokovic defeated Tsonga to win his first Grand Slam title.

That was Tsonga’s breakthrough, and it had many in the game believing that he would soon make a deeper impact on the sport. Injuries and inconsistency have kept him from getting past the quarterfinals in another major tournament until now, but grass is a natural surface for him with his attacking game and ability to improvise. He has also been re-energized this summer by the decision to split with his long-time coach Eric Winogradsky and to take greater responsibility for his own career.

“On the important points, he played at his best,” said the third-seeded Federer, who had beaten Tsonga in four of their five previous matches. “He took risks and chances, and it all worked for him. It’s hard to accept, because I feel I was as good as he was in terms of how I was playing. But he closed really well and served really well for a long time. I knew he could do it, but it was still impressive to see when you’re across the net.”

Obtained by: Christopher Clarey

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