The front page of yesterday's French sports daily, l'Equipe, put it perfectly: "L'heure de Jo" – the hour of Jo, willing Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to take his big chance.
He didn't let them down.
The Frenchman's 7-5, 6-3, 6-3 win over a below-par Roger Federer – it was as one-sided as the scoreline suggests – sent Tsonga into the semi-finals here for the first time.
Thirty years after Yannick Noah became the last Frenchman to win the title, only the world No.4 David Ferrer, a 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 winner over Tommy Robredo yesterday, stands between Tsonga and a place in the final. "I want to scream and jump all over the place but I have to stay focused," a jubilant Tsonga said. "Today before I came on the court, I had a long discussion with Roger [Rasheed, his coach] and we tried to see how Roger Federer plays on the clay and also the way Rafa [Nadal] is always able make him play the wrong way," Tsonga said. "Then I tried to do the same. Today it worked."
It will be the first time since Wimbledon 2010 that someone from outside the big four has reached a grand slam final and, on yesterday's form alone, Tsonga will believe he has a fighting chance, no matter who comes out of the top half.
Nadal and Novak Djokovic play their quarter-finals today against Stanislas Wawrinka and Tommy Haas respectively.
Tsonga has always been capable of passing brilliance, as wins in grand slam events over Federer, Nadal and Andy Murray would suggest, but there have been times, such as here last year when he had four match points against Djokovic in the quarter-finals, that he has not quite been able to deliver the hammer blow.
Yesterday, once he recovered an early break for 4-4 in the first set, he was confident and aggressive, while remaining calm enough to sustain his level of brilliance throughout three sets. Federer saved three set points at 5-6, one with an outrageous flicked backhand pass, but could not save a fourth and Tsonga, maintaining superb depth on his traditionally weaker backhand side, broke early on his way to the second set.
The only time the crowd sensed a Federer fightback was when he broke back for 1-1 in the third but Tsonga broke twice more to clinch victory. "I thought he played great today," Federer said, disappointed yet refreshingly honest. "He was in all areas better than me today. That's why the result was pretty clean. No doubt about it.
"I think I struggled a little bit everywhere. To be honest, personally, I'm pretty sad about the match and the way I played. I'm just disappointed I couldn't put in a better match today. But credit to Jo-Willy please."
Robredo had come from two sets down in three consecutive matches to reach the last eight against all odds but Ferrer proved far too strong for his fellow-countryman, winning in less than an hour and a half.
In the women's event, Serena Williams survived her first test of the tournament as she beat former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the last four
The American, whose only title here came in 2002, trailed 2-0 in the final set and Kuznetsova had three opportunities to make it 3-0.
But Williams held serve, steadied her nerves and eased away to set up a semi-final with Italy's Sara Errani, seeded fifth, runner-up last year and a 6-4, 7-6 winner over the No.4 seed, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
*Andy Murray's former coach, Miles Maclagan, is to coach Britain's women's No.1 Laura Robson for the forthcoming grass-court season and potentially beyond.
Robson split from her Croatian coach, Zeljko Krajan, last month, saying that the two had not clicked as she had hoped. Maclagan, who coached Murray between 2007 and 2010, told BBC5 Live that Robson had firepower and potential to be a top player.
"I'm not going to put a number on it but Laura's a young player with a lot of firepower and the ability to take on the top players," he said. "It's exciting."
"She clearly has the mind for the big stadiums and for the big time, to take on the big players, which is a key ingredient for anyone who's going to play well."
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