12/11/11 - 20:54

2008 winner and home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga survived the loss of the first set and then three match points in the third to squeeze past a valiant John Isner and into the final. The match lasted for three full hours and ebbed and flowed throughout, and it looked for all the world that Tsonga was dead and buried on a number of occasions, but the 14,502 members of the partisan crowd carried him through the lows and then surfed on the highs as he booked his date for a dream final with Roger Federer.

In the opener, Isner was in a state of grace. He served at an 80% clip and won that very same percentage of points on his first and his second delivery. He came to the net and volleyed deftly, played flowing ground strokes and even when his first service was awry, his second would kick and rear up into Tsonga’s body like a Rafael Nadal forehand. The break came in mid-set in a game of all the deuces with the Frenchman warding off three break points, one with a second serve ace brimming with chutzpah, but Isner was not to be denied. It required eight minutes of patience but the American eased into a 4-2 lead and nursed it home to take the first set 6-3.

The second was nip and tuck. Isner’s service was nowhere near the weapon it was in the opener but his shot-making, particularly in the earlier games, was impeccable. Tsonga meanwhile held comfortably but could take none of the three break points which came his way, despite Isner seeming to fatigue as the set wore on.

And so it went to a tie-break – Isner’s speciality. And yet Tsonga got his nose in front with a mini-break at 2-1 and was never headed, serving strongly and sitting back while Isner suddenly sprayed shots high, wide and very ugly. The Frenchman took the breaker 7-1, but though the giant American looked out on his feet as he went back to his chair, he somehow emerged refreshed.

The final set was more or less a mirror image of the second, with the two servers on top until 5-6 when Tsonga netted an easy forehand at 40-30 then double-faulted to set up match point. Isner would end up having three of them in total but snatching at all of them, and Tsonga had the wind in his sails for another tie-break. And again it was one-sided. A net-cord gave the Frenchman an immediate mini-break and with the crowd roaring him on, he served strongly to lead 3-0, 5-2 and then he watched as history repeated itself only in reverse, with Isner double-faulting this time. Tsonga would require only one of the three match points to close out this epic, and the roar as he hit his forehand winner could be heard at Roland Garros on the other side of the city.

Isner of course had regrets about the three chances he missed. “The first one, I barely got the ball to the net, the second one, he put a good first serve in, and when he runs around the backhand you're on the defence and it's tough. The third one, that was the one I could have had. I just hit a backhand long. Anything could happen – he could have easily missed one of those forehands.But that's why he's one of the best players in the world. He came up big,” said a sporting Isner after the match.

In Sunday’s final, Tsonga’s first service will have to function from the off. He won 84% of points on it today but only managed to get 56% of them over. He hit 60 winners, out-aced Isner 12 to 10 but never broke. Federer on current form will take more than that to beat him. But for now, Tsonga will not be analysing the statistics, and neither will the crowd. They have the final they dreamed of…