By Nick Georgandis
A look at some of the statistical peculiarities of the upcoming Roland Garros men's semifinals:
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's win over Roger Federer in the quarterfinals was just the fifth time in the last 10 years that Roger Federer has lost a Grand Slam match in straight sets. Previous to Tuesday, the only players to accomplish this feat against Federer were Novak Djokovic (three times) and Rafael Nadal (once).
Tsonga joins the short list of men to have defeated Roger Federer twice in Grand Slam matches - Tsonga won a five-set rally at Wimbledon in 2011. Also in the club? Rafael Nadal (8 wins), Novak Djokovic (5), Tomas Berdych (2), David Nalbandian (2), Alex Corretja (2) and Arnaud Clement (2). Of those - Nalbandian, Corretja and Clement's victories all came before Federer was ranked No. 1 or won his first Grand Slam.
Tsonga is one win away from being just the fourth French man to reach the Roland Garros final in the Open Era. Patrick Proisy lost the final in 1972; Yannick Noah won it in 1983 and Henri Leconte lost it in 1988.
Should Ferrer and Nadal comprise the final, it will be the first time since 2004 that two players from the same country have played in the Roland Garros final (Argentina's Gaston Gaudio and Guillermo Coria), and the first time two Spaniards have done so since 2002 (Albert Costa and Juan Carlos Ferrero).
David Ferrer is 0-4 in his career in Grand Slam semifinal matches.
The Nadal-Djokovic semifinal breaks a streak of 11 straight matches the pair have played in that have been finals. The last time the pair squared off in a Grand Slam semifinal was Roland Garros in 2008, which Nadal won in straight sets.