Nerves of steel saw Novak Djokovic save four match points on the way to a five-set victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a breathtaking French Open quarterfinal on Tuesday.
The local hero, seeded fifth, lost two match points on Djokovic's serve when 5-4 up in the fourth, netted another at 6-5 and lost yet another when the Serb kept cool enough to smash into an open court.
Djokovic broke early in the decider and never looked back on his way to a 6-1, 7-5, 7-5, 7-6(6), 6-1 win.
It keeps alive the Serb's quest for a maiden French Open final, but to reach it he must beat Roger Federer, who also needed five sets to get past Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro earlier Thursday.
The Swiss third seed dug deep to overturn a two-set deficit and record a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-0 win over Del Potro, a repeat of their semifinal result in 2009, when Federer went on to win his only Roland Garros title to date.
The two hit 43 unforced errors each, but, tellingly, Federer produced nearly double Del Potro's 33 winners.
Federer has dropped a set in each of his five matches so far except the opener against German qualifier Tobias Kamke.
In the semifinal, Federer faces the winner of Novak Djokovic's quarterfinal with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, which was also heading into a fifth-set decider late Tuesday.
The other semifinal is determined Wednesday, when fourth seed Andy Murray faces Spain's David Ferrer, the sixth seed; and Rafael Nadal continues his mission for a seventh Roland Garros title against another Spaniard, 12th seed Nicolas Almagro.
In the women's draw, Australia's Sam Stosur and Italy's Sara Errani set up a semifinal clash after both breezed through their respective quarterfinals.
Sixth-seeded Stosur, a Roland Garros finalist in 2010, swept aside Dominika Cibulkova with surprising ease 6-4, 6-1.
The Slovakian Cibulkova, seeded 15, had dumped world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka out of the tournament in the previous round, and was mooted as a dark horse for the title.
Errani, meanwhile, ousted a higher seed for the second time in the draw, downing Germany's 10th seed Angelique Kerber 6-3, 7-6 (2). She had earlier taken care of Serbia's Ana Ivanovic, the 13th seed, in the third round.
The other quarterfinals pit Wimbledon champion Petrova Kvitova against Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova, who slayed reigning champion Li Na in the fourth round; and Estonia's Kaia Kanepi against Maria Sharapova, the second seed.
