France’s own Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will hope to continue his surprise run through the Roland Garros draw when he goes up against Stan Wawrinka on Friday. The winner will face either Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray for the title.
Stan Wawrinka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be doing battle for the seventh time in their careers when they collide in the semifinals of the French Open on Friday.
Interestingly, if not amazingly, this will be their sixth consecutive meeting on clay and the two veterans have not squared off on anything other than clay since 2007. The head-to-head series stands at an even 3-3, with Wawrinka having won three of their five encounters on the slow stuff. They most recently faced each other last fall in the Davis Cup final in France, where Wawrinka silenced the crowd in the form of a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory. A pair of 2013 showdowns saw Tsonga prevail 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 before the Swiss came out on top 6-2, 6-7(9), 6-4 in Madrid.
Although both men have reached Grand Slam finals (Australian Open; Wawrinka won in 2014, Tsonga lost in 2008), whoever reaches this title match must be considered a significant surprise based on recent form. Wawrinka had been 8-7 in his 15 previous matches heading into Roland Garros, but so far this fortnight he has taken out Marsel Ilhan, Dusan Lajovic, Steve Johnson, Gilles Simon, and Roger Federer. The world No. 9 dropped only one set to Lajovic and his 10-set winning streak has required only one tiebreaker.
Tsonga, in part due to injury, had been even worse than Wawrinka over the past few months. In his recovery from an arm issue the world No. 15 won just six of his first 11 matches this season. But as he suggested after upsetting Kei Nishikori in five sets on Tuesday, Tsonga loves Roland Garros (“Roland je t’aime”). The 2013 semifinalist preceded his quarterfinal win with convincing victories over Christian Lindell, Dudi Sela, Pablo Andujar, and Tomas Berdych.
This is Tsonga’s second trip to the last four in Paris and the second time he will be playing an opponent outside the “Big 4” with a spot in the title match at stake. He fizzled when presented with such an opportunity in 2013, losing swiftly to David Ferrer 6-1, 7-6(3), 6-2. Tsonga should turn in a better account of himself in this one, but Wawrinka’s firepower was downright scary against Federer. The No. 8 seed is a slam champion who will not crumble at this stage of a major.
Pick: Wawrinka in 4
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Reblogged this on Tennis Abides.
Stan for the win please!
Agreed.
Mirka will be disappointed. You ditched her pretty quickly.
As you ditched Federer lol.
Glad to see you’ve got your sense of humor back after Stan and Nole took out your fake heroes.
ah filter…malice and spite make such exquisite bedfellows! I do hope you enjoy them….
Fake heroes, lol.
(Sad fedfan deserting ghosts are everyehere.)
Hilarious!!!
Stan in 3…
stan in 4
Stanimal in 4 competitive sets
I’m guessing Tsonga will fold. He’s won some tough matches on the way to the SF but Warwrinka is in a different league to Jo-Wilfred.
Stan in straight sets
Stanimal in 3.
Stan the Man is on fire. If he can keep it up he should win. Surprised no support here for Jo though. This is his home slam and trying to pull a Yannick Noah is a good story. The crowd will push him to play his best. This is going to be such a good semifinal day with the washed up pair MIA! Allez!!!!!!!!!!!!
French Open deserves this boorish Joslaw SF for rigging the draw for autofilter’s ex-fav. But he just can’t get it up anymore, his racquet I mean.
Hilarious!!!
I am picking Stan in four sets. I think that Tsonga will want to do better than he did against Ferrer and the crowd will be rocking the place in support of him.
It’s fairly certain there will be thunderstorms before the end of this match. This will break Tsonga’s rhythm and destroy any momentum he may have gained in spite of the crowds efforts to lift him.
The only positive for me in the Djoker/Muzz final is that one of them is going to lose.
#I’m bitter
why don’t you like Murray nadline??
Amy, because Murray goes all out to beat Rafa. Watch him hand the match to Djoker gift wrapped.
yeah I’ve kind of noticed that! like flogging yourself into the ground to try and bagel someone in an exhibition match when they’ve effectively been off the tour for 7 months!
BTW, did Murray acknowledge that that was not the real rafa out there after madrid? because if all the same circumstances were in place the other way round then I’m sure rafa would have said that…..
Stan in 4, maybe even 3 if he plays like he did against Fed
stan is mainlining the ball…
Amy
You’re wrong about that one. They are pretty good friends. When he beat a visibly injured Rafa for the 2009 Rotterdam title, in his acceptance speech he said: “Rafa’s pretty hard to beat even when he’s on only one leg”
OK ed, was just asking!! I guess we Rafa fans are pretty sensitive at the moment, no?
They do get on well off court but Murray does seem to kill himself when he plays Rafa to beat him at all costs then the British commies NEVER stop going on about it. They were still going on about the one set Murray took in MC years ago until Rome last year when he took another set,
Just watch Muzz lie on his back for Djoker today.
yeah the British commies do my head in as well, never mind the Torygraph or the Daily Fail.
Just imagine what they will be like at Wimby, their Goebbels style propaganda machine: you know how they twist ‘facts’ and statistics all the time – will be in overdrive.
It is really hard to root for Murray, in the same way it was really hard to root for Henman, listening to them all. I don’t like people telling me I should or ought to support someone.
Agreed. Just look at how Murray reacted after beating Rafa in the Madrid final saying how he had done the hardest thing in tennis by beating Rafa in a clay court final. Reality was that Rafa was terrible in the match handing it over on a silver platter. At least Nole admitted Rafa was not at his best when he actually did the hardest thing by beating Rafa in a best of 5 on clay.
never thought I would be cheering for stan! maybe it’s the shorts that are humanising him, at least for the moment…
his games is fab right now…
Better Stan in the final than Jo.
Will make for a better final and the French crowd will have nothing to cheer for lol!!!
The other day you asked why Tsonga was always hitching up his shorts. I”ve asked myself for years why if they bother him he doesn’t wear shorter shorts. Lo and behold, he must have seen your comment: he’s taken the plunge and is wearing short shorts today 🙂
Well spotted ed! they look quite dashing….
don’t think we’re going to see jo pointing to his head again at the end of this match…
^^^^Its all or nothing with J-WT. Occasionally it’s brain+brawn but more often it’s brawn without the brain. This year at RG he’s actually managed the two together for the whole tournament.
B.Borg is in the stands
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGvG7tmUgAAOpfV.png
how about Borg to be Rafa’s new coach!! so cool…..legend plus legend……
Yep. Suggested Borg weeks ago. Right personality fit IMO.
He seems thrilled that Rafa is not there today. I agree Bjorn.
^^sad, when one’s life is filled with hatred for someone one does not know.
What have you done with your life @filter? The whole world knows about Rafa’s accomplishments, who knows about yours, if you have any?
you and Bjorn hang out together often hey filter? is that why you miraculously ‘know’ what he is thinking? or is there a thought bubble in invisible ink coming out of his head which only you can see. (Clue: delusional belief systems are a sure sign of schizophrenia).
Borg has called Rafa one of the greats on many occasions
Only a fool would come on here and talk about their personal life. Sufficient to say that tennis is but a minor part of my life. Look at the amount of posts by others here compared to me. See hawkeye: 1 million posts: obviously no real life.
And a “clever” person would use their anonymity on a tennis blog to denigrate a 14-Slam winner, someone they do not know? Got it……….
Oh @filter.
Ooooooh! Apparently I’ve gotten under the skin of a sad fedfan ghost.
http://media.giphy.com/media/nLfEVuqqk9puw/giphy.gif
What has autofilter done? Abandoned his favourite tennis player when Rafa showed him the door.
Anyone who bothers to post on tennis forums and claims tennis is a minor interest is delusionally hilarious!!!!
filter,
Don’t you have anything better to do than hate on Rafa? You are only here to trash him and try to make it worse for his fans.
Is that all you have in life? Because it doesn’t take courage or guts to post this stuff anonymously on a computer.
filter,
Now you are positively delusional! Borg loves Rafa! He has talked about him with so much respect because he knows what it takes to win here and that it was thirty years before Rafa broke his record.
You make yourself look the fool if you trash the player who won nine titles here! So sad!
Hahaha…the commentator just saying how it’s a shame that PC has so many empty seats given that it’s the Frenchman playing semis…bet Rafa’ s match would be of more interest for Parisian hungry souls…Next year he should indulge them in the finals wining the 10th..
I add a picture
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGvJhf7WQAAkXTm.jpg
We can always rely on augusta08. Hehehehehe!
Empty seats are everywhere….
This is about the boorish French Open Crowd but some-bot-y will never understand (good think they don’t CARE what I say – or DO they…)
https://twitter.com/scambers73/status/606777563256635392
https://twitter.com/scambers73/status/606778019831812096
Hilarious!!!
#EmptySeats
You wouldn’t see this at any other slam but the French Open.
#EmptySeats
I guess all of the “American Tourists” have all gone home now that there is no scoreboards to boo any longer.
June 5, 2015 at 12:31 pm.
According to the media, they can boo wherever.
For example:
Tennis Now, May 14th, 2012: ¤¤ After losing the first set tonight in his opening match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, John Isner could probably hear the boos not only in Rome, but perhaps a few coming all the way back in the good ol’ USA. ¤¤
Maybe next year they won’t rig the draw to boost TV ratings by nursing The Chosen One through each round.
Will still happen at Wimbledon though.
^^Wanna bet? They will stuff Fed’s half with qualifiers and demand each of his opponents play with leg-chains on for good measure. The better to ensure he makes the final. And when he gets into the final, they will schedule the match to start at 07h00 Paris time so they can stop the match on account of poor visibility, effectively making the final 2 Masters events.
June 5, 2015 at 12:32 pm,
—to boost TV ratings by nursing The Chosen One—
============================
TV ratings? But, as for the French crowd, they don’t bother attending his matches.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGaWvhWU8AAPznT.jpg
The French crowd are but a fraction of a fraction of tournament revenue.
Sad robofans have no clue.
As usual, hawkeye63 is desperately trying to rescue Fed. Nothing new!
😆
^^^ gussie-bot Type (c) robo post insulting real Rafans with nothing new nor original to say about tennis.
Sadfan.
More boorish repetitive made up stories and apparently does indeed care what I say despite bot lies to the contrary…
https://tenngrand.com/2015/05/14/rome-qf-previews-and-picks-nadal-vs-wawrinka-ferrer-vs-goffin/comment-page-2/#comment-193588
augusta08 says:May 16, 2015 at 6:13 pm
I don’t care what YOU said.
choke-fest going on by stan…
is the heat getting to him? he looks like a lobster….
I don’t want jo to win because if he does the final will never be in doubt regardless of the crowd
100 percent agreed! stan must win here.
Stan has wilted in the T.B! this is why I thought he won’t win in 3 sets. He will get it done in 4 sets I think . I HOPE tsonga does not cause an upset here…please..
I HOPE so as well!!
Stan was mainlining the ball before and utterly outplaying jo….
is it the heat, the crowd, both??
will be an awful final if Stan chokes….
1 set all. I knew Jo would fight at home.
^^^The “fulfilled” one has so much going in his life. How does he spare his precious time for lowly trolling here?
I feel so special.
Welcome to My club.
Hillarious!!!!
It’s a club of two so far – autofilter and some-bot-y else, I’ve forgotten its name. Oh well.
#Humb1e
In 2013 Tsonga and Ferrer played their SF after Rafa/Djoker and the commies said the Rafa/Djoker match had sucked the life out of the stadium so the atmosphere was dead for the other SF. They said that a Nadal match is hard to follow.
Not his last one.
Come-on. Everybody knows the French live to eat. It takes more than a Frenchman in the SF to drag them out of the restaurant before 2 o’clock. Look at the rows of ‘suits’ in white panamas now 🙂
#TheEnglishOnlyEatToLive
It takes a spaniard. 🙂
Stan only just held! he is definitely wobbling…
do we need a storm?? or 2?
do the french deserve to run a slam? they would work harder at a tennis themed restaurant…
Apologies to Hawkeye. The French lunch hour is over. Still blocks of empty seats.
Can only think lots were bought to be handed out as complimentary tickets that have not been used. Disgraceful when you think how many people would give anything to be there.
I think many foreigners have flown home seeing that the ‘belle of the ball’ is no longer there.
J-WT is playing is raising his level while WaWa is slowly unravelling.
MTO for Wawrinka after 3-2 in the 3rd set (a problem with a finger):
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGvZ449WgAAfDUy.png
Amaaaaaaaaaaaazing!!!!!!!!!!!
RT @NicholasArias: “Remember when clay was not a real surface? This year it became the most important one for everyone lol.”
This match is less than enthralling.
Yawn fest…….
WaWa is jigging about with his tail up now.
This match is still on? I woke up a while ago to see that Stan had won the first set and it was a battle late in the second set.
Well I did say that I thought Tsonga would want to put up more of a fight than he did two years ago.
I am still feeling bad about Rafa’s loss. 🙁
I’m impressed by Fabrice Santoro commentating on English TV. Apart from his fluent English he is also amazingly impartial and refraining from openly rooting for J-WT
yes he’s great ed!! good sense of humour, charming….fabulous accent!
he’s very insightful also when analysing the player’s game and tactics
I want Stan to win only because I believe that he will have a better chance against Novak. Sorry if that sounds like I am saying that the other semifinal is not in doubt. I would love to at least see Murray make a real battle out of it.
He’s gone off the boil big time NNY. The final will be an even bigger anti-climax than 2013
ed,
Who’s gone off the boil big time? Stan? Murray?
Sorry NNY, missed your question. I was referring to Stan playing nowhere near the level of his previous matches this fortnight. Hope he steps it up for tomorrow or the final will be a washout. Bet Djokovic is being coached right now to give his acceptance speech in French.
The Refreshment marquee has emptied. All the seats are full now 🙂
If Rafa was going to lose I’m glad it was to Djoker not to Murray. Had he lost to Murray at RG I think I would have emigrated to some far flung island where I would not be able to hear the British triumphalist comments for evermore.
^^^^^^Nadline
Oh for the days of Dan Maskell………..
yes nadline my thoughts exactly!!
Can’t believe Wawa is going to be in a RG final and Rafa is not…..
Yuck.
The arrival of Weak Era II – the Sequel has arrived!!!
Tsonga’s loss means that Rafa will be No.10 in next week’s rankings.
I was reading on VB the other night and someone there cranked the numbers and said that Rafa would be #10, but #11 if Tsonga got to the final.
So Rafa is still in the top ten at least.
The world seems to have gone off its axis. Rafa is gone and Stan is in the final. Where did this come from? Stan hasn’t done anything this year. They commentators on the tennis channel said that last year he was knocked out in the first round!
Now in the states we have the pleasure of the network taking over to show Novak/Murray. My question is, will they stick with the match if it goes long? At least not the networks are not doing the tape delay nonsense, where they would broadcast a match hours before it happened. Last weekend they just picked up the matches lives when their coverage began. That’s progress, I guess, But I still would really like to see the networks just get out of the business of showing tennis altogether.
ESPN isn’t all that great either at times because they cover so many other sports. If not for the tennis channel, all would be lost for American tennis fans.
I guess that I am fortunate to not have to deal with the British media over Murray. But we have our own cross to bear in the states. If there is an American playing at a slam anywhere, anytime, then other matches will be given short shrift!
If Murray wins this match I’ll eat my Nike bull horn cap.
A bit of light relief. I wear my Nike bull horn cap in the lounge to watch tennis. My excuse is that there is too much light coming in through the window. 🙂
^^^^ROFL
Have Murray and Djoker signed a covenant to play dull matches?
Djoker targeting Muzza’s weak FH……….
Apparently I’m more for Muzza in this match than I had expected.
#ScoreboardWatching
I want Amelie to beat BB…
Vamos Amelie!
RT @AmyFetherolf : “Stan Wawrinka in another slam final. What a world.”
nny, just to let you know that I left a couple of posts for you on the long nadal/djokovic thread. I’m not going to watch this match so will be offline now.
Ask Dick Enberg would say, Ohhhh my…..
https://twitter.com/rolandgarros/status/606851466574315520
Clay titans with no clay slams. Too funny!!
@rolandgarros
Battle of the clay titans: whose streak will come to an end?: http://rg.fr/oFyvx9
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CGv4MRmUkAAXRwj.jpg
(I guess that makes Rafa their God)
nny, just to say that I left a couple of posts for you on the long nadal/djokovic thread.
am not going to watch this match as I can’t stomach the british media when murray is playing so will be offline.
If Murray can keep this going he’ll soften Djokovic up nicely for Stanley. Oh, Oh, he’s up to his old tricks already.
Trainers already on court for the Djoker.
SARS or bird flu.