The latest recorded start to a match at the Open came in 1987, when Gabriela Sabatini and Beverly Bowes took the court at midnight for a match that ended at 1:30 a.m.  Like Kuznetsova, who had 29 unforced errors to Wozniacki’s 3 in the pivotal second set, Fish was left to ponder what might have been.  “I thought obviously this was my best chance so far,” said Fish, who has never advanced past the quarterfinals in a major. “I lost to a great player today. There’s just no way around it.”  As the day and the match wore on, the one constant was the wind. It wreaked havoc on both players, the final statistics belying the high quality of play. Tsonga compiled 59 unforced errors against 51 winners — including 18 on his forehand side — to Fish’s 43 winners and 55 unforced errors.  Tsonga, a 26-year-old Frenchman, had the more powerful serve, and it cut through the wind like a sail, as evidenced by his 12 aces (to Fish’s 3).  “We’re both confident, great surface for both of us; it seems like a relatively even sort of match,” Fish said. “The conditions just completely took it away from us. It’s kind of a shame that’s what it came down to, sort of; you know, the wind and just who could deal with that.”  In the two months leading to the Open, Fish made the finals in three tournaments and defeated the defending Open champion Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals of a fourth. He credited a vastly improved level of fitness for his renaissance, but in the end, his body betrayed him.  He required medical attention before the fifth set, and again after the third game, for soreness in his upper right hamstring and hip. Fish, 29, moved gingerly between points throughout the final hour but was mobile enough during one to engage Tsonga in a double-digit rally in which they exchanged six reflex volleys before Fish hit a backhand long.  “It was unusually cold,” Fish said. “For whatever reason — old age, I guess — my body didn’t check up like I had hoped. Look, that’s not why I lost. But it would have been nice to be able to run without pain.”  Thunderstorms had been forecast for the afternoon, and after the fourth set, Fish could have been forgiven for doing a rain dance. But he said his goal was to finish.  “We’re that far into it,” he said. “My body probably could have handled an extra night of sleep. But we wanted to finish.”  In the fifth set, Fish’s mental focus was like cellphone reception on the grounds. It faded in and out. As the players changed sides after the first game, he complained to the chair umpire, using blue language, about the decorum of somebody in Tsonga’s guest box. Tsonga was so focused, he said he did not hear anything but the sound of the ball coming off Fish’s racket.  “I did a great job today,” Tsonga said. “I was mentally strong.”  Tsonga had reason to feel confident when he was able to force a fifth set. His career record in five-set matches was 6-2. Fish’s was 8-8.  “You start a fifth set, it’s anybody’s ballgame,” Fish said, adding: “It’s a great spot to be in, a pretty good spot. We both knew it. He picked up his game better than I did.”  Fish staved off three match points on Tsonga’s serve, only to watch Tsonga earn a fourth with a 135-mile-per-hour offering. He capitalized on it with a vicious forehand overhead winner.  As the taut drama played out, the crowd in the plaza grew until there were roughly 10,000 people holding night-session tickets to Ashe standing shoulder to shoulder and rooting for Fish, who tried to put a good spin on the loss.  “It’s disappointing, no doubt about it,” he said. “He’s a great player. It’s not a bad loss.” He added, “I can look myself in the mirror.”  Fish’s shoulders were slumped as he spoke, the universal language for resignation.  A version of this article appears in print on September 6, 2011, on Page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Buffeted by Wind, Tsonga Unleashes a Powerful Force of His Own. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
On the Open’s second Monday, Mardy Fish, the No. 8 seed, got caught in a maelstrom of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s power and nature’s bluster, losing 6-4, 6-7 (5), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.