Back from the brink, Djokovic downs brave Tsonga to keep the dream alive (ROLAND GARROS)

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

By David Tutton

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In one of the all-time classic French Open encounters, Novak Djokovic demonstrated just what a champion he is by saving four match points before prevailing 6-1, 5-7, 5-7, 7-6(6), 6-1 over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
The Frenchman would be forgiven for waking up in a cold sweat these next few nights, with the vision of the Djoker haunting his sleep. The No.5 seed after all had been right on the edge of a famous victory, one that would have elevated him to hero status in his native land and opened the door to a possible victory in his home Grand Slam.
Tsonga had bossed matters for three sets, enough to win any match, grabbed four match points and played each of those to the best of his ability, and yet it was not enough. To lose, after playing some of the best tennis of his life against an all-time great was heartbreaking for the man from Le Mans, who understandably shed a tear or two of frustration at the end.
That he lost, despite everything, is because he happened to come across perhaps the greatest sportsmen on the planet right now, a born champion who just refused to allow his own dream to die - that of being the first man since Rod Laver to hold all four Grand Slams at the same time. Djokovic has the heart of a lion, nerves of steel, and such ability that even when he plays below his best, as he did for a long period today, he can still pull off the great escape.
Epic encounter
The Serbian world No.1 was harried, hustled, out-thought and outfought in sets 2, 3 and 4, but his courage in saving those match points was breathtaking, and perhaps a sign that nothing can stop him from reaching his goal.
The opening set and a half could not have prepared us for such an epic encounter. Tsonga had said he would play free of pressure, but appeared strangely subdued as ‘Nole’ took charge, breaking him twice and securing the first set 6-1 in just 21 minutes. When he carved out a 4-2 lead in the second, we expected a straight-sets win over a man who was perhaps tired after the exertions of his two-day five-set win over Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round.
Stopping Djokovic when he is on a roll is a little like halting a bulldozer when it’s halfway through pulling your house down. Up to this point Tsonga had been hiding somewhere in the proverbial cellar while the Djokovic wrecking ball smashed around him.
Desperate times called for desperate measures, and that meant Tsonga bringing out his own heavy artillery, namely his thundering forehand and devastating double-handed backhand. The no.5 seed needed to go for broke, to unleash the full force of his groundstrokes, no holds barred. And suddenly he did, crashing winners left and right, and seizing the initiative to break back to 4-4. He began to storm the net too, cutting off Djokovic’s piledrivers before they could cause more havoc on French territory.
Under the onslaught, the Novak juggernaut stalled and even began to misfire. At 6-5 Tsonga had three set points on the back of unforced errors from the Serb, and took the third as Djokovic hit long. We were back at one-set all, with everything to play for.
Four match points
Now Djokovic was rattled, and despite breaking Tsonga for 2-1, his timing was a mess in his next service game and the Frenchman broke straight back. Games now went with service until it was time for Tsonga to seize his chance at 6-5 set point on Djokovic’s service, and he did so in the most thrilling of fashions, biding his time for once and letting Djokovic come to him. Drawing the Serb to the net, Tsonga forced him into a tricky volley that sat up nicely for a pass that sent the crowd wild.
With Tsonga ahead two sets to one, we were in for a treat and no mistake. With the Novak Slam hanging by a string, if not yet by a thread, Djokovic need to up his game. And to do so he needed to get to grips with the Tsonga second service whenever he had the chance. But the fifth seed refused to give him the opportunity, slamming big first services whenever he was in trouble, at 2-2, 15-40 for example.
With the set going with service up to 4-5, Tsonga was a game from victory, and then with Nole hitting uncharacteristic unforced errors, Jo had two match points at 15-40. The Serb saved the first in incredible fashion, with a volley as Tsonga went for a down-the-line winner. A big service and follow-up winner saved the next and Djokovic held for 5-5. Then, amazingly, at 5-6, Tsonga carved out another two match points, only for Djokovic to save them with an overhead and another big serve.
So we went to the tie-break, and despite Tsonga leading 4-2, it was Djokovic who held his nerve to win 8-6. We sensed the top seed was over the worst, and so it proved as Tsonga finally ran out of gas in the fifth. Djokovic sealed it 6-1 to win in four hours nine minutes. And as a distraught Jo-Wilfried apologised to the crowd for coming up just short, Nole was left to reflect on how he had managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Refelcting on those match points, Djokovic said: "There is really not any rational explanation or a word that can describe what you're supposed to do when you're match points down or when you're losing and you're very close to lose the match. It's, I guess, trying to be mentally tough and believing in your shots.  Obviously a little bit of experience that I had playing on this level for last five, six years.  I did have some matches similar to this one when I was match points down and managing to come back. So I don't want to be wise now and say, Okay, I know you how to play when I'm match points down.  Because as I said, there is no explanation.  I'm just going for the shots.  I'm glad I was aggressive in these moments and, you know, it paid back for me."
Tsonga described how he felt as he sat in his chair at courtside immediately after the match ended: “You get all kinds of feelings going through your mind. You want to break your racquet. You want to shout. You want to cry. You want to laugh and say, ‘Oh, come on, that's a joke. How could I lose this match?’ You sort of want to wake up.
“This is probably the most difficult defeat of my career. I was pretty close. I fought as much as I could.  But I can’t play the match again. In tennis you can play very well and still be defeated 6‑0 if the guy on the other side of the net plays better than you. That's the way it is.”