Looking to finish the third quickly, Tsonga had a set point at 5-2 on Murray’s serve. But the Scot dipped into his service reserve and hit a few big first serves to bail himself out. Staying calm, Tsonga grabbed the second set, 6-3, giving Murray his first lost set of the fortnight.
The Frenchman has come back from two sets to love on a handful of occasions, but doing it against a world No. 2 in front of his home crowd is no simple task. He happened to pull off the feat against Marcos Baghdatis at the French Open in May, and was four for four in five-setters at Wimbledon going into this quarterfinal.
But the Scot started off strong, opening the fourth set with a tough hold after saving break point. Tsonga held right back, but Murray began to get amped up, replacing his often negative energy with positive fist pumps.
Staying on the task at hand, huge serves helped Tsonga hold at love for 2-2. It was discouraging for the Scot to struggle to hold serve as Tsonga continued to rip through his service games. Murray finally held without going to deuce for a 3-2 lead.
Tsonga looked unbeatable on his serve, but he went down 0-40 in the sixth game. He unleashed a bold second serve-and-volley combo, getting away with it thanks to a Murray error. Still, Murray wouldn’t be denied, capitalizing to get a 4-2 lead.
Much like in the first set, Tsonga broke right back despite Murray saving three break points. And now, just like in the third set, Tsonga was back in the driver’s seat as the aggressor, hitting huge forehands and forcing Murray to hit errors. When Murray had his chance again to break, Tsonga ripped a backhand down-the-line winner and eventually held for 4-4.
Tsonga wasn’t going to give the break back. A sizzling forehand winner on the line gave him a break point, and a passing shot winner sealed it. Tsonga won four games in a row to take the set 6-4.
“The end of that fourth set was really tough,” Murray said. “Losing that 4-2 game after breaking, and coming back from 0-40 in that game to lose that set 6-4. was hard. I tried to use all my energy in that fifth set and get the crowd pumped up and use that.”