Only two men not named Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal have won Grand Slam titles since the 2005 French Open. Novak Djokovic, who hasn’t lost a match this season, is one. Juan Martin del Potro, who played three tournaments last year after having surgery on his right wrist, is the other.
Djokovic vs. del Potro is the sort of match you’d salivate over in a Grand Slam semifinal or final. What a treat, then, to have it in the third round at this year’s French Open. Or at least, it would have been a treat, had the tournament’s organizers not stumbled their way to an embarrassing evening that ended with this potentially thrilling match called for darkness at one set all.
It didn’t take much to predict that this might happen. In fact, almost every commentator here did so from the moment Friday’s schedule was released Thursday evening. To make this match the fourth of the day on Court Philippe Chatrier would have been a mistake no matter who played earlier. But to start it after three matches that had a very high potential of going the distance? That was a blunder. And all three of those matches, it turns out, took almost as long as possible: The two women’s matches lasted three sets and the men’s match lasted five.
Organizers almost escaped unscathed when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, one of France’s finest players, led by two sets and a break over Stanislas Wawrinka. Predictably, he fell apart. Just before the match ended, tournament officials decided to move Djokovic and del Potro—the marquee match of the day—to Court Suzanne Lenglen, which has 4,855 fewer seats. Wawrinka won after Djokovic and del Potro had completed just three games.
You can guess what happened next: Fans fled Chatrier but were stopped from entering Lenglen. (This tournament sells separate tickets to its stadiums.) A crowd built up. So did voices. Before chaos ensued, the guards relented and fans filled what remaining seats they could find.
For the little time that it lasted, this match was as good as advertised. Djokovic won the first set 6-3, but suffered an unusual hiccup early in the second set when he made three errors and then double-faulted on break point. Del Potro, who has the most imposing forehand in the sport and moves remarkably well for a 6-foot-6 man, had the opening he needed. He crowded Djokovic with booming body serves and held his own in rallies. At one point, Djokovic looked toward his box and pointed two fingers toward his eyes, to suggest that he couldn’t see.
Del Potro swatted away a 15-40 deficit in the final game of the second set with four bullet serves, two of them aces and one a winner. Then he and Djokovic sat down and exchanged words, and both agreed it was pointless to go on. So did the referee. They’ll pick things up tomorrow—in Lenglen again—at no earlier than 1 p.m. local time.
