Blazing Heat
The men's semifinalists duked it out yesterday in 90 degree temperatures under searing sunshine. Though storms popped up in nearby areas and clouds eventually gathered over the stadium, for the most part the skies over Roland Garros stayed clear while the players baked and battled.
Double Threat
With their semifinal win yesterday, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova are both looking to double down on titles. Mattek-Sands captured the mixed doubles title with Mike Bryan and will be looking to become the first woman to win both the Roland Garros mixed doubles and woman's doubles title in the same year since Ruano Pascual did it in 2001. Safarova will be looking to be the first woman to win both the Roland Garros singles title and the woman's doubles title since Mary Pierce won both in 2000.
Stan the Man: The Sequel
Stanislas Wawrinka advanced to his second career Grand Slam final after a four set win over French favorite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Wawrinka—a former junior champion at Roland Garros and the 2014 Australian Open winner—will have to wait another day to find out who he will face in his second Grand Slam final.
To Be Continued…
The first six games of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray's match were tense and hard fought, until Murray played an exceptionally poor game at 3-4, gifting Djokovic the break. After that, the Scot looked sapped of his energy and soon began muttering to himself as Djokovic broke in the middle of the second set and then broke again. Murray finally started to show signs of life again at the end of the third, winning a sensational 15 of the last 20 points in that set to climb back into the match. Along the way, he snapped Djokovic's streak of four sets without facing a break point and also took the first set of the tournament off of the world number one. Unfortunately, the match was suspended at 3-3 in the fourth as stormy weather finally rolled over Roland Garros, forcing the players off the court.