Roland Garros officials aren’t taking any chances this year. When Tsonga, a home favorite, reached the semifinals in 2013, they scheduled his match after the semi between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Those two proceeded to play for five sets and over four hours, and Tsonga proceeded to get caught up in it while watching on TV in the locker room. By the time he took the court with David Ferrer, he was flat, and so was the energy in the stadium. The crowd had taken a much-deserved break after Rafa and Nole finished, and didn’t return until Tsonga was nearly out of the first set.
The French schedulers have learned their lesson. Has Jo? The last time he played his semifinal opponent, Stan Wawrinka, in the Davis Cup final last November in Lille, France, he complained that the home fans weren’t helping him enough. Tsonga, who lost that one in four sets, is going to have to generate some of his own energy to turn the tables on Friday. Wawrinka is coming off what he called the best clay-court match of his career, a 43-winner, straight-set rout of Roger Federer. Tsonga beat Wawrinka in five sets at Roland Garros in 2012, but he won’t be able to afford any of his customary lulls and lapses if he wants to do it again. There will be support from his people, but there will also be pressure: The last French man to make the final here was Henri Leconte in 1988, and he was booed off the court when he didn’t win. Winner: Wawrinka