Stanislas Wawrinka on Friday defeated World Number One Andy Murray 6-7 (6), 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-1 in the men's singles semifinals to enter the French Open final.
It will of course be a disappointment for the world number one not to make a 12th grand slam final but he leaves Roland Garros in much better shape than when he arrived.
Murray, who like Wawrinka owns three grand slam titles, made only one unforced error in the first seven games.
A women's tournament that was missing Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka will finish with a first-time Grand Slam champion, either No. 3-seeded Simona Halep of Romania or 47th-ranked Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
Thiem was the victor the last time these two met in the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia and he opened with a break to give himself what would soon become clear was false hope.
Spain's Rafael Nadal raises his arms in victory after defeating Austria's Dominic Thiem during their semifinal match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium, Friday, June 9, 2017 in Paris. At 2-2, they had both won 34 points in the set so far.
- The 31-year-old Spaniard has yet to drop a set at the championships this year. They saw deuce several times, and Wawrinka eventually got the break, but Murray fought back and broke Wawrinka with a attractive backhand, and took control of the set from there.
"With an atmosphere like the one today, you can not help but give your all".
For four hours and four minutes, Andy Murray stood toe to toe with Wawrinka in a French Open semi-final classic. He went up to 6-5 and served for the set, holding without issue to go up two sets to one. That's what I preferred to do.
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The Spaniard, whose only defeat on the red dirt this year came against Thiem in Rome, then broke with a clubbing forehand and lost only three more points on serve as he wrapped up the second set. It's not every day you get to a final like this. There are a few things that I for sure feel I could do better, I would have liked to have done a bit differently.
Wawrinka also becomes the oldest man since Niki Pilic in 1973 to reach the French Open showpiece. He capped it, appropriately, with a backhand down the line, his 87th victor of the day, 51 more than Murray.
The 2015 Roland Garros victor prevailed 6-7, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6, 6-1 in a gruelling contest that lasted for 4 hours and 34 minutes.
While the drama dropped off during the early part of the fourth set, the standard did not.
The third set was a roller-coaster affair with several breaks of serve before Murray took it 7-5.
- The Swiss hit 18 winners to draw level after two hours.
The seventh-ranked player in the world talked about the ridiculously hard climb to the mountaintop after upsetting Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals, per Kamakshi Tandon of Tennis.com.
Swedish great Borg might still hold that mark but Nadal has long since left the six-times French Open champion behind in the Roland Garros record books.
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