Alexandr Dolgopolov and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had met twice before this match. Tsonga outlasted his younger rival 10-8 in the fifth set last year at Wimbledon; then, earlier this year, Dolgopolov prevailed 6-1 in the final set at the Australian Open. So I expected this match would go the distance, but I had no idea how far that distance would be.
The match began on time Monday evening, at 7:30 pm. At 11:30 pm, at 3-2 (on serve) in the third set, it was finally called for rain, on the third delay. Finally, it finished in brilliant sunshine at 2:20 pm on Tuesday.
In the first four hours we were treated, rain permitting, to some exhilarating, baffling, athletic and just plain strange tennis. The match began with a lot of empty seats, but by the end of the evening I was expecting some of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to show up in the courtside boxes—it was that weird.
Since his breakout run to the 2008 Australian Open final, Tsonga has become more of a known quantity in the ATP. Dolgopolov isn't yet, partly because I don't think even he knows what he's going to do with the ball until a hundredth of a second before he hits it. Dolgopolov held the match's first break point when they went off court for the first rain delay: a weak Tsonga forehand yielded the break, but Dolgopolov coughed it straight back at love with a run of soft errors. Tsonga took the initiative in the tiebreak that followed, eventually winning it in a Keystone Kops set point at 6-2.
I thought Dolgopolov might fold when he went down an early break in set two, but he broke back at 3-3 after Tsonga made a horrible mess of a high forehand volley. The windy conditions seemed to affect the umpire, Mohamed Layhani, as much as the players—his calls were noticeably (and unusually) inconsistent, and this may have rattled Tsonga late in the set. Following a botched service line call at 4-5, 15-30, Tsonga went postal on his racquet after he netted a volley on the replay, then conceded the set after another frenetic set-point rally point ended with Dolgopolov's volley put-away.
Maybe it was the conditions on Monday night: when the match resumed the next day, there was lots of quality play and less eccentricity. Tsonga was the first to make inroads. He held four break points at 4-4, but couldn't convert any. Then, just as it looked like a final-set tiebreak was inevitable at 5-6, Tsonga went down 15-40 after two errors and a running Dolgopolov pass. Tsonga saved one with an ace, but mishit a forehand into the net on the next one. Both players had won 113 points, but Dolgopolov had the match, 6-7 (2), 6-4, 7-5.
Dolgopolov has yet to play Tsonga's compatriot, Gael Monfils. On the day that happens, I'm going to corner the market in antacids for their coaches.
—Andrew Burton