SEPP Blatter wasn't the only esteemed Swiss sporting figure brought down a peg or two yesterday.
But at least in the case of Roger Federer, this one was cost neutral for the Alpine nation. The 17-time Grand Slam winner packed his bags from Paris last night, after having been a victim of friendly fire from his countryman Stan Wawrinka.
This was the 19th meeting between these two players who had combined to take the country to Davis Cup triumph in Lille last November. Federer had won 16 of them, including all five of their previous encounters in the slams. But revenge was duly served amid windy conditions out on Suzanne Lenglen. No fewer than 43 winners off either flank flashed past the greatest player of all time, with the Wawrinka serve so impenetrable that this became the first Grand Slam match since 2002 in which Federer failed to generate a single service break. A grand total of 291 matches have elapsed since then.
The 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory ended in somewhat controversial circumstances, with the umpire awarding a disputed point to Wawrinka at 3-3 during the breaker, but it was a magnanimous Federer who spoke afterwards, already looking forward to challenges ahead. Twelve slams, however, have now come and gone since he last won one. "It's just nice for him [Stan] even talking to him now, to string it together on a big occasion like this at the French where I always thought he'd have his best chance to do well," said Federer. "I made 30-something errors today, and he [the umpire] made one maybe. I'm already thinking about what I'm going to do next, because Wimbledon is going to be a big goal for the season. That's where I want to play my best."
The French, meanwhile, like their grand gestures and one was unfolding out on Philippe Chatrier. A day of drama ended with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the World No 15, lying on the clay, armed outstretched, in jubilation, forming the middle T in the message 'Roland Je T'Aime' which he had just paced out on the court. The reason for his exuberance was simple: he had just recreated his best-ever result at his home slam, a venue starved of a home winner of the men's singles since Yannick Noah in 1983.
It wasn't just Kei Nishikori, last year's US Open finalist, that Tsonga had to overcome. He was a set up and serving for the second at 5-2 when the players had to leave the court for approximately half an hour after a sizeable aluminium plate surrounding the Chatrier scoreboard crashed into the stands, injuring three people, one of them seriously enough to require hospital treatment with lacerations to his wrist. When they re-emerged, Tsonga promptly found himself dragged into a fifth set but he pulled through in the end for a 6-1, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
The continued re-emergence of Ana Ivanovic from the Grand Slam wilderness was the main narrative in the ladies singles. The 2008 French Open champion, roared on by celebrity boyfriend Bastian Schweinsteiger, was always too strong in her 6-3, 6-2 win against Elina Svitolina, the No 19 seed from Ukraine who was Jamie Murray's mixed doubles partner here. Spain's Garbine Murguruza has Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario on her side, but Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic was a deserved 7-6 (3), 6-3 winner of the day's other women's quarter final.
In the girls' doubles, meanwhile, Scotland's Maia Lumsden and her partner Anastasia Gasanova went down 7-5, 6-4 to No 7 seeds Pranjala Yadlapalli or India and Wushuang Zheng of China.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article