PARIS – So it won’t be quite like 1997, after all.
Jakub Mensik made sure of that by ending Brazil’s chances at another dream run to the title at Roland Garros by defeating Joao Fonseca.
Mensik did it in straight sets in the quarterfinals with a brilliant all-court performance under a closed roof that did not exist in 1997 when Fonseca’s effervescent compatriot Gustavo “Guga” Kuerten came out of close-to-tennis-nowhere to win it all in Paris.
The roof, inaugurated in 2020, was a factor on Tuesday night, helping Mensik to play and serve with the power and precision required to keep Fonseca on the stretch and at bay, even after he saved six match points on serve to force a third-set tiebreaker. Kuerten, his abundant mane gone gray, was in the front row for it all: urging on his would-be successor, twisting away when supersonic forehands smacked into the tape or landed just wide.
It was that kind of evening for the 19-year-old Fonseca after he helped flip this tournament on its head by upsetting Novak Djokovic from two sets down and then avoiding the hangover by beating Casper Ruud.
But neither Djokovic nor Ruud was as relentlessly good from the backcourt and forecourt as Mensik, who, at age 20, is also making his first big splash in a major after beating his idol Djokovic to win the Miami Open last year.
Last week, the Czech youngster looked down and out after cramping at the finish of his marathon second-round victory over Mariano Navone: lying on the clay for several deeply unsettling minutes and then needing help to get to his feet and the locker room. But youth is made of rubber, and Mensik, not Fonseca, will face No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev in the semifinals on Friday, and they will be joined by a much more unlikely pair from the top half.
It has taken a series of long-shot happenings to get to this stage, including a wrist injury for Carlos Alcaraz that kept him out of the tournament and the ultimate meltdown in the first-week heat for clear No. 1 Jannik Sinner after he led by two sets and 5-1 against Juan Manuel Cerundolo.
You can’t make this stuff up, but as in 1997, the most off-the-rails French Open I have covered, this wild and crazy edition keeps getting wilder and crazier and not just for the men.
On Wednesday at Roland Garros, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was up 6-3 and two breaks at 4-1 on Russian lefty Diana Shnaider only to start losing her edge and her cool on the same patch of red clay where she lost both against Coco Gauff in last year’s final.