French Open Preview: Men's singles quarterfinals (Day 10)

(2) Roger Federer (Switzerland) vs (6) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) [Head-to-head: Federer leads 9-3]

[Last meeting: Australian Open 2013 (Hard), QF, Federer won 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(4), 3-6, 6-3]

There were 3, now 1 remains. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is the highest ranked Frenchman in the ATP rankings. He is also now the last home hero standing at the French Open 2013 after the fall of No.7 seed Richard Gasquet yesterday in a match that will not be easily forgotten.

The No.2 Swiss player in Stan Wawrinka put paid to the hopes of France’s No.2 yesterday. Today, the top players of the two countries will go face to face in the Quarterfinals of the French Championships – it’s Federer versus Tsonga.

Roger has had the edge in this rivalry of late. He has won their last 5 meetings, fuelled by two back-to-back losses that Federer suffered in 2011 to the Frenchman – at Wimbledon and the Masters 1000 event in Montreal. In fact, quite remarkably, 8 of their 12 meetings came in that year with Federer winning 6 of them.

Their last meeting, in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open earlier this year, was an absolute humdinger. It had everything that accompanies a typical Federer-Tsonga match – plenty of groundstroke winners, great net play, big serving and lots of emotion from the prancing Tsonga. A match between these two is never a dull affair as both players go for their shots and rarely play defensive on points.

Federer may have the edge in the head-to-head, but with Roger’s advancing years and some increased maturity in Tsonga’s game, it’s getting tighter. Each of their last 3 encounters has gone the distance (one 5-setter & two 3-setters) and this one could easily go down that path again. There are two types of players who Federer does not like playing against:

1. Guys who can hit big from the back of the court to the extent of going through you with the weight of their shots like a Del Potro or a Murray.

2. Rafael Nadal.

Tsonga falls in that first category and that’s why he has, and will hurt Federer. The French No.1 has an explosive game in his armoury which when on song, can be destructive, as Federer found out in Melbourne. He has a big, big serve that fetches him a lot of cheap points, bailing him out in tough circumstances. His forehand is a major weapon, one of the biggest on the tour and the man has very good skills at the net when he looks to come forward.

Federer has all the weapons to deal with that though – his forehand is amongst the best on tour, packing a lot of oomph, one of the most accurate serves in the business and the variety in his game to unsettle his opponent.

The biggest deciding factor in this match will be Federer’s concentration. Apart from all his dazzling skill, it used to be the prime force that ushered those years of domination. That has perhaps been the biggest reason for the downturn in Roger’s fortunes; he is no longer tuned in for the entirety of the game and hence fails to take advantage of opportunities even against Nadal and Novak Djokovic. We saw in the previous round against Gilles Simon, where he lost concentration for a while and ended up being 2-sets-to-1 down after looking so comfortable early on. He cannot afford such slip-ups against Tsonga who will have all the support he needs from the crowd. The pair have only once played on clay before, in the Round of 32 at the Rome Masters in 2011; Federer won that in straight sets.

Clay is not Tsonga’s favourite surface; he likes the hard courts and grass a whole lot more where the courts offer more purchase for his shots as they tend to be a lot faster than clay. That is one reason why Tsonga will have to raise his game a little more today considering the nature of the surface as some of his shots which go for winners elsewhere, may find their way back to him.

For Federer, he will look to stay sharp throughout and avoid the hiccups from the previous round. His priority will be to keep his unforced errors down; he made 56 of them against Simon, which could very well swing the game away from him.

Like the last of the Mohicans, Tsonga is now the sole flag-bearer for France remaining in the competition. Can he rise up to the challenge and get past an ageing Federer? Or will the Swiss maestro prevail once again? There won’t be shortage of entertainment and you will not be bored, that much can be guaranteed.

It’s a showdown between artistry of Federer and the power-packed tennis of Tsonga!

[Expected start: 7.30 pm IST]