Did he jump or was he pushed? That was the question among observers of Roger Federer after his five-set loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Wimbledon, my 9th-best match of 2011. In other words, was it Federer’s letdown or Tsonga’s surge that was the cause of this stunning comeback, the first time that Federer had lost a Grand Slam match after having a two-set lead? I remember being surprised by the question. To me, walking out of Centre Court, with the crowd’s buzz of surprise and excitement ringing all around—“What a day to come to Wimbledon!” someone behind me blurted—I thought it had been all about Jo. The Frenchman had hit too hard, run too fast, leapt too high: I didn't think there was a whole lot Federer could have done over the last three sets. Looking back at this highlight reel—apologies up front for the soundtrack issues—it's hard to argue with Tsonga's performance: Outside of Novak Djokovic's wins over Rafael Nadal in Madrid and Rome, it may have been the best of the season. This match wasn’t just the heart of that day at Wimbledon, it was the heart of the tournament, the one around which the rest of men’s draw wheeled.
We got a lot more than we thought we were going to get after two sets, anyway. It was at that point, when Federer won the second and it appeared that Jo was never going to show, that the reporter next to me in the pressroom stood up and declared, “This is dogmeat.” I hope he watched the rest.
—Roger Federer might not have agreed that afternoon, but this match is another argument for the continued existence of the five-setter in Grand Slams. It was one of those Wimbledon sagas that seem to go on all day inside Centre Court, like a song you keep hearing in your head, while you go about your business around the grounds. I ducked into a mostly empty press section early, when the sky was briefly cloudy and the audience subdued, and ducked back out after the first set. I watched some more on a monitor in the media room, and then on the Jumbotron as I passed by Henman Hill. At that stage, everyone, including the TV announcers, was acting as if this was going to be a routine Federer win. Then I came back to the media room, finished a post, looked up, and saw a Centre Court transformed. The sun was out, the star-filled crowd was energized—wow, Jack Nicklaus is there, you know this is big!—and Tsonga was bopping along the baseline between points. I had to get in there.
—From this clip, you can see how well Federer started. It’s easy to forget now, but after his run to the French Open final, he was a lot of people’s favorite to win this tournament. There was a suspicion at the time that he had stopped Djokovic’s momentum with his semifinal win over him at Roland Garros. Federer at least seemed to be on a collision course for a rematch in the next round at Wimbledon. The one downside to Tsonga’s win in this quarterfinal is that we didn’t get a fourth Grand Slam semi between Roger and Novak in 2011. Judging from the last two, God knows what would have happened in that one.
Anyway, Federer starts well here. He pushes Tsonga back with his forehand and steps into a backhand return, something he doesn't do later. At 4-1, Federer puts a topspin lop on the baseline for a winner, then snaps off a crosscourt backhand approach and finishes with an elegant forehand volley. But Tsonga still wins the game. Can a YouTube highlight clip have foreshadowing? If so, this is it.
—I had forgotten how close Federer was to drawing even at 5-5 in the third set. He knifes a backhand past Tsonga to get to deuce at 4-5, but we don’t see how Jo eventually closes it out. You’d have to favor Federer from 5-all if he breaks Tsonga there.
—By the fourth set, though, the horse is out of the barn. Tsonga won a lot of points with big first serves to Federer’s backhand, though we don’t see many of them here. What we do see is that he was doing a lot of other things as well. He crunches returns, leans into his backhand—now he's the one pushing Federer back—and takes over rallies with his athleticism. He ends one point by running into the stands and another with a shoetop drop volley.
—And it was Tsonga’s athleticism that saved him on the two most important points. Serving at 4-3 in the fifth set, on the first point, Tsonga slipped and fell. But, like the boxer he's always compared to, he got off the mat, cracked a forehand as if nothing had happened, and won that potentially momentum-changing point. Two games later. Tsonga served for the match at 5-4. On the first point, Federer had him on the run as he moved forward for a short ball. Tsonga was racing to his left, so Federer tried to flip it behind him. But the Frenchman wasn’t going to be denied on this day. He somehow put himself in reverse and surprised Federer with a down the line pass—it was a momentum changer, literally and figuratively. Tsonga, relaxed now with the first point in his pocket, threw down two more bomb serves to Federer’s backhand and finished his breakthrough performance. It was the beginning of the best sustained run of his career.
Centre Court is the game's proving ground. As Tsonga said after his loss in the next round, the atmosphere there can make you feel like a great player, "even if you're not." You were too modest, Jo, and you proved it with this spectacular, surprising win.
