Federer will be hoping to avenge memories of that five set defeat in the Wimbledon quarter-finals where he lost from two sets to love up for one of the first times in his career. Tsonga then proved it was no fluke by outplaying Federer in Montreal. The Swiss has been struggling to deal with the huge hitters like Tsonga and Tomas Berdych recently, finding himself a little overpowered.

Federer was extremely impressive in the last round as he destroyed Argentina's Juan Monaco but it was Tsonga who made all the headlines by taking down Mardy Fish in five pulsating sets.  America's best hope for success at Flushing Meadows crashed and burnt 6-4, 6-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Tsonga's back at his top ten best but it was still quite an effort to come from two sets to one down with the entire crowd against him.

Federer insisted on Monday that he had quickly forgotten about his Wimbledon loss to Tsonga, saying, "For some reason, because I felt I did everything I could, it was almost back to a true grass court match.  A couple shots here and there made the difference, particularly back at the break I got in the third set. I should never have been broken.  For some crazy reason he gets the break there and the rest, as we know, is history.  Normally on grass, people used to serve and volley.  This was first serve, first hit, the point was over so many times on both ends.  At the end he got the better of me.  I didn't walk away too down.  I was more frustrated for a little bit because I knew I was playing good enough to win the tournament."

"It's sure something I'm looking forward to. I live for the big matches, live for playing a guy who is explosive, has got some firepower.  I like to play those kind of players, especially now that we're in the deeper stages of the tournament."

This is a crucial match as Federer has not failed to reach the semi-finals of the US Open since 2003 and if Tsonga blasts him out the way again, it really will be seen as a changing of the guard, in the eyes of the rest of the top players, not just the media. However Federer has lost just twice on this court since 2004 and he could well have taken each of those matches. He relishes the night time atmosphere and I feel he'll find a way to exploit the weaker Tsonga backhand and returns just enough to get the win.