Given a choice between watching Federer-Davydenko or watching Djokovic-Tsonga, I opted to watch the first, which got a particularly late start because both Williams sisters played tight three setters.  Venus Williams was cruising over Li Na and seemed assured of a straight set win.  However, with a 5-3 lead, Venus lost serve then subsequently lost the tiebreak.  The third set was mostly about which woman could hold serve, since this was rather difficult for both.  Li Na eventually held, after breaking Venus for the umpteenth time.

That already pushed the schedule quite late.  Then, Serena has the opposite problem.  She loses her serve for the first time in the tournament to Azarenka, then the first set in a tiebreak.  She’s down 4-0 and seemingly ready to get on a plane back to the US (were it not for the fact that she and her sister are still in the doubles tournament) when Serena wakes up, rattles off a bunch of games, and wins the match in three sets.

This pushes the start time of the Federer match to 5 PM or about 1 AM in the east coast.  His match goes four sets and concludes at about 7:30 PM (3:30 AM east coast).  Djokovic and Tsonga were to take the court at 7:30 but don’t start until around 8.

Anyway, it seems like many of the matches on Day 10, this was a match in two parts. Tsonga leads their head to head, 4-2.  Djokovic won their first meeting (Australian Open 2008) and their last meeting (Miami 2009).  Tsonga had won four matches in between.  All matches were played on hard courts.  Tsonga has a flashy style and, at the very least, plays a bit more sensibly than his similarly athletic countryman, Gael Monfils.

It seems the match really hinged on the first set tiebreak which Tsonga took 10-8.  Up to this point, Djokovic had been coasting to easy wins, most of them of the straight set variety.  He looked sharp hitting the tennis balls.  It seemed perhaps it wouldn’t matter that Djokovic was lacking tough opposition.  Everyone knew this would be his first tough match.  The question was, how would he respond.  One wonders what would have happened if Djokovic took the first set.

Djokovic took the second set in a tiebreak, 7-5 in the tiebreak.  He then steamrolled in the third set, 6-1.  Apparently, at about this point, he was not feeling well.  He needed to take break and had a medical time out early in the fourth set.  He had a stomach ailment and diarrhea (TMI, Novak!).  However, due to the bad press he got last year retiring against Roddick, he felt he had to soldier on and finish out the match.  This quickly went Tsonga’s way, as he took the next set, 6-3, and the final set, 6-1.

Critics of Djokovic are sure to question his toughness.  It seems Slams are often won or lost based on the health of the player.  Ivan Lendl said that he lost one of the US Opens (probably 1983) due to stomach cramps.  But for each guy that loses due to physical suffering, there is a Sampras that beats a Corretja when he is puking in the flower beds.  Djokovic, at the very least, has to be disappointed in a match he appeared to be controlling.

So that wraps up the other two semifinalists: Roger Federer will play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.  The last time they met, Federer had a meltdown and gave up a 5-1 lead to Tsonga to lose in a tiebreak.