PARIS—Two of the more volatile and complex players in men’s tennis got together in the quarterfinals of the French Open, and by the time they hashed out their business they could barely find each other at the net for the handshake, it was so dark out there.
This three-hour and 15-minute match had two massive, unexpected shifts of momentum before Andy Murray dragged himself across the finish line, a winner over Gael Monfils by the Alice-in-Wonderland-ish score of 6-4, 6-1, 4-6, 1-6, 6-0.
Yes, sets three and four were reverse images of sets two and one. But in the end it was that showman Monfils who disappeared down the rabbit hole, ensuring that it would be at least another year before a Frenchman won his local tournament.
How could he let the fifth set slip away so quickly and comprehensively, after fighting so hard to put himself into it?
“Well, I don't think I have the answer yet,” a pensive Monfils said afterward. “I think I played a good first game. I think it was 15-30 (on Murray’s serve). Then everything happened very fast. I missed a few shots, and I don't know. I don't really know what happened. It was very fast. You know, very fast. I start to miss a lot of balls. I felt not bad, so it was a very strange feeling. Very strange.”
Monfils, who was seeded No. 23 here, won’t be the only one trying to figure this one out; it was one that tennis historians will puzzle over some day, the way they mull over the true meaning of Machu Picchu, or try to figure out just how Rafael Nadal managed to hit his forehand.
“It was a hard match,” Murray, the No. 7 seed, said. “Conditions changed quite a lot during it. It was extremely windy in the beginning, and then it was pretty calm at the end and very slow. Yeah, I mean, he really raised his game in the third set. I thought I played a pretty good third set. Fourth set wasn't my best, but, yeah, it was a fun match.”
In a way, the result was hardly surprising. Monfils has long seemed more capable of turning a tennis match into a dramatic spectacle than in figuring out just what it takes to beat an opponent and then applying it with diligence and conviction—right to the end.