He is yet to claim a Wimbledon title, but Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has one perfect record at the All England Club: he has never lost a five-set match in nine men’s singles appearances and he fought his heart out against John Isner to make it a perfect six.
Taking 4hr 24min to secure the 6-7(3), 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 19-17 win, Tsonga progressed to the fourth round of The Championships in the most dramatic way. He survived a match point at 15-16 in the final set, before sealing victory with a backhand volley winner. “I didn't know,” said Tsonga, clearly surprised when told of his perfect five-set statistic. “But I'm happy to win today one more match. It's good to be alive.”
It was a match that may have played out very differently, if not for one Tsonga double fault in the tie-break of the first set. The Frenchman had lost only one point on serve until then, but the glitch gave Isner the required edge, and he secured it in 35-minutes.
The occasional hiccup would continue to impact in the most significant way against Isner, who was typically impenetrable on serve. Tsonga surrendered just one break of his own over the entire five sets, giving Isner a 4-2 lead in the second. The Frenchman couldn’t recover then, but when play was suspended overnight, he’d wrestled the third set in another tie-break.
It was an important momentum shift and Tsonga was clearly determined to maintain it when play resumed. With Isner receiving treatment on his knee early in the fourth set, the Frenchman was again flawless on serve; he won every point of his own service games and secured two breaks for a 4-0 lead, sending it into a decider in just 25 minutes.
The epic fifth set, lasting 2hr 9min, featured no breaks of serve until Tsonga at last gained an edge in the 35th game, his confidence perhaps helped by the match point he’d saved four games earlier. A smash winner at 30-30 applied some pressure and Isner responded with a flurry of errors to give the Frenchman the break, before finally serving it out.
“He played better than I did,” said the American. “That was it. He was the better player.”
Isner, of course, won the longest-match in tennis history at 2010 Wimbledon when he defeated Nicolas Mahut 70-68 in the fifth set of a first round played over three days. “A little bit,” Tsonga laughed, when asked if we was thinking of that epic as he competed against Isner.
“For me, the time I would spend on court, it's not the most important. The most important today was to win and continue.”
Isner, perhaps unsurprisingly after his latest result, favours fifth set tie-breaks but Tsonga appreciates the spectacle. “Sometime it's better for the body. At the same time, it's good for the crowd and for the people around, for the story,” he pointed out.
Certainly the fans watching on the No.2 court relished the entertainment factor that Tsonga provided in his latest five-setter, and he’ll have many supporters as he prepares to meet Richard Gasquet in an all-French fourth round.
“Hope I will have a good recovery from this one and tomorrow be fit to play,” said Tsonga, who is into the final 16 of Wimbledon for the fifth time.
Moving quietly through the men’s draw, Gasquet advanced with a 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-3 win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Their match was also suspended overnight, but in contrast to Tsonga, he needed only 31 minutes to seal victory when play resumed.
Statistics suggest an even contest: Tsonga and Gasquet have played eight matches, winning four apiece. Adding to the intrigue, they are close friends.
“We know each other so well. We played since we were children,” said Gasquet. “So of course he's a good friend, so of course it's different to play against him. We are both French. We know each other well, so it will be a tough match.”
For fans, it will almost certainly be another spectacular contest. Flamboyant in style, the Frenchmen are also strong in spirit; should Tsonga find himself in another five-set battle, you might even say it’s perfect.