THE FRENCH crowd at Roland Garros yesterday looked to a 21-year-old from the island of Guadeloupe to lift them out of the gloom of a grey Paris in the spring.
Gael Monfils, their rising star and an underage Grand Slam winner, took another step closer to becoming the first French finalist since Henri Leconte lost to Mats Wilander in the 1988 French Open final. Now, only a Swiss player called Roger Federer stands in his way.
That conundrum will be for today. Last night was Monfils's moment and as soon as the final point dropped on the cooling clay, the young athlete ripped off his shirt and hurled it into the crowd.
It took him under two hours to unseat Spain's 26-year-old world number five, David Ferrer, who conceded the first set 6-3 before bouncing back in the second to level 6-3, the young Frenchman dropping serve twice in the seventh and ninth games.
But Monfils, looking stronger and fitter than he has ever been, lifted his game with powerful ground strokes and placement to win the third 6-3, breaking Ferrer in the ninth game. The fourth set and the taking of the match was less fraught, the speed and power of Monfils limiting the Spaniard to just one game.
The unseeded Monfils had never been to the semi-final of a Grand Slam, his best finish prior to last night the round of 16 at Roland Garros in 2006.
Yesterday's result was an important breakthrough for the player and once again pushed French tennis to the fore, much as the unheralded and unseeded Jo-Wilfred Tsonga had done when he reached the final of the Australian Open earlier this year.
"I was in better physical condition, so that's it," said Monfils. "He was already tired. He had played matches in five sets."
Fernando Gonzalez learned yesterday on the Suzanne Lenglen show court that you should never beat a wasp's nest with a stick and expect not to get stung. Plucky as it was taking the first set off the world number one, Gonzalez's opening gambit stirred Federer to life. The Chilean, who had equalled his best Roland Garros result by getting to the quarter-finals, and has been unbeaten on clay this year with a 16-0 record, had actually beaten Federer in Shanghai last year on hard court. But his 6-2 annexing of the first set in just 25 minutes to the collective gasp of the crowd drew some of the best tennis from Federer since his arrival in Paris.
There had been some speculation around the Porte d'Auteuil that Federer had tempered his fearsome reputation and was not quite what he was at this time last year, when most players believed him unbeatable.
His fallibility had been exposed just a little more often this year but yesterday on a dry, cool afternoon the backhand began to work, pinning Gonzalez wide and leaving an open court on the forehand side, which Federer exploited.
Working off a serve that was cleverly mixed and using the Gonzalez bias for his forehand, Federer tailored his game perfectly. Pulling back on his serve slightly to get a higher percentage of first deliveries in court, he took the second set 6-2 in under half an hour, the third 6-3 and the fourth 6-4.
"It's always a great pleasure to be in the top four of a Grand Slam," said Federer. "It's really where it gets most interesting. This is usually where I hope to play my best, especially here at the French, which is supposed to be the toughest one for me."
DETAILS
MEN'S SINGLES
Quarter-finals
Gael Monfils (France) bt 5-David Ferrer (Spain) 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-1; 1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) bt 24-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) 2-6 6-2 6-3 6-4
WOMEN'S SINGLES
Quarter-finals
13-Dinara Safina (Russia) bt 7-Elena Dementieva (Russia) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-0 4-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) bt Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) 7-5 6-2.
WOMEN'S DOUBLES
Semi-finals
(10) Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spa) Virginia Ruano Pascual (Spa) bt (1) Cara Black (Zim) Liezel Huber (USA) 6-4 7-6 (7-2), Casey Dellacqua (Aus) Francesca Schiavone (Ita) bt (7) Alona Bondarenko (Ukr) Kateryna Bondarenko (Ukr) 6-2 6-1.