Whenever tennis fans are hungry, they always get Fed. Once in a while, lovers of this racket sport are given more comfort food than they can possibly comprehend.

On an amazing afternoon (and evening) at Roland Garros, a sport gave the world a remarkable two-match display of heart, hustle and higher-than-high drama. At the very end, a proud champion was left standing by the smallest of margins, able to pursue a date with history that will capture the popular imagination.

Roger Federer has been a mainstay at the late rounds of Grand Slam tournaments, but rarely has a tennis audience–in the stands at Court Philippe Chatrier and throughout much of the globe–been nourished the way it was on a fabulous Friday of men’s semifinal action at the 2009 French Open. After Robin Soderling advanced to Sunday’s championship match with a grueling five-set win over Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez, Federer pulled off an equally breathtaking victory over another sensational South American, Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina. Federer’s 3-6, 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 triumph electrified the Chatrier crowd and captivated the tennis community. The match, on its raw merits, wasn’t quite as good as the Soderling-Gonzalez semifinal, but in terms of pure sports theater, the slugfest soared to ethereal heights on a day made for dreams.

More on Federer’s manhood-maximizing march to Sunday’s final in a moment. The man who truly made the second semifinal sing was del Potro, for a whole host of reasons. First of all, the Argentine’s last encounter with Federer in a Grand Slam came in the 2009 Australian Open quarterfinals. The scoreline was a 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 slaughter for the Swiss icon. Del Potro stopped competing late in the second set, an understandable response of a 20-year-old against a proven and experienced champion. Even before this match, del Potro had said that if he couldn’t win the tournament, he’d want Federer to win. That’s not the mental attitude of a man ready to win a match, but improbably enough, this youngster grew up in a hurry on the red dirt of Europe. He pushed Federer a little in the Madrid Open semifinals on May 16, losing by a respectable 3-and-4 score, and on Friday in France, the South American played the best five-set match of his young life.

Del Potro spent the first two sets serving from a tree. The Argentine nailed 72 percent of his first serves, including 10 aces on a day when “Delpo” out-aced Federer by an eye-popping 16-5 margin. Federer had two break point chances through the first three sets, but the fifth-seeded del Potro threw down untouchable serves to erase both opportunities for the second seed from Switzerland. On some days, Federer has had a nagging propensity to squander break points with tentative play, but in the early going of this semifinal showdown, the Argentine underdog wouldn’t allow Fed to feast on breaks of serve. It was all Federer could do–in the face of the Argentine’s onslaught–to hang in the second set, force a tiebreak, and elevate his game to even the match at one set apiece. When del Potro’s very best tennis could only produce a tie after two sets, a lot of commentators and longtime tennis observers had to think that the 20-year-old would crumble.

It was only then that del Potro showed even more of himself, transforming his own reputation the way Robin Soderling has done this fortnight in Paris.

As the match wore on, del Potro continued to take the fight to Federer. In the third set, Delpo’s groundstrokes remained solid, while an uncertain Federer–unable to sustain the emotional high of the second-set tiebreak win–lost focus from the backcourt. The Argentine broke for a quick lead, and then added another break of the Swiss with a well-rounded game. The knock on del Potro has been his inability to cover the court, but in set three at Chatrier, the Argentine was running down many of Federer’s drop shots, hanging in the arena on extended rallies, and generally showing all of the tenacity that was so noticeably absent in Australia. As del Potro rolled to the third set in only eight games, the rest of the ATP Tour had to realize that a new championship contender had just joined its ranks.

Yes, del Potro faltered in the fourth set, and yes, the Argentine didn’t walk off the court as a winner on the scoreboard, but to the very end of this enthralling encounter, the fifth seed made Federer work for every single morsel of success. Federer secured 2-0 and 3-1 leads in the fifth and deciding set, but del Potro–his legs weary and his game under attack from Federer–fought off a few break points on his own serve, and then unleashed a remarkable return lob, followed by some penetrating backhands, to break Federer in the sixth game and level at 3-all. Even after double-faulting to hand the break back to the Swiss in the following game, del Potro saved a match point on his own serve at 3-5 and made Federer serve out the semifinal at 5-4. In the 30-35 hours leading up to Sunday’s final, Federer will earn a deserved amount of praise and publicity for his achievements, chiefly his record-tying 19th Grand Slam finals appearance (tied with Ivan Lendl), but for today, the man who truly ought to bask in the sunshine of glowing words is Juan Martin del Potro. One match, even without a desired scoreboard result, did much to turn a decent quarterfinal-level player at the slams into a bona-fide big boy over the next few years on tour.

So much can be said about Federer in the wake of a match that didn’t offer classic tennis (though well above average, to be sure), but featured an epic battle between two men who warmly embraced at net when it was all over at Roland Garros. Ultimately, the only thing one needs to know is that the Swiss–who fought from behind in three of his previous five matches in this tournament–once more found a way to turn back a hot-hitting opponent in an extended match, relying on all of his championship poise  and first-rate physical fitness to pull through under pressure. As was the case with Fernando Gonzalez against Soderling in the day’s earlier semifinal, Federer was able to play long enough for his opponent to wear down. Unlike Gonzalez, however, Federer made a fifth-set lead hold up after making a comeback in the fourth. “Never underestimate the heart of a champion” is a time-honored sports truism, and its value was never more apparent than when Federer lifted his game in the final two sets of this match. There’s a reason why the Swiss has won 13 slams, and is now aiming for the 14th title that would complete a career Grand Slam and tie Pete Sampras for the most major championships of all time.

In the end, tennis was actually the foremost hero and winner on Friday. Soderling-Gonzalez started the day with a 3-hour, 28-minute match. Federer-del Potro lasted 3 hours and 29 minutes. Ten sets were possible; 10 sets were ultimately played. Six hours and 57 minutes of heavy-hitting action offered a pair of “6-4 in the fifth” scorelines. One bold challenger and one resolute champion emerged from the frays to meet in Sunday’s singles final.

Rafael Nadal might have left the French Open far too prematurely, but one has to admit: The sport, perhaps quite surprisingly, has carried on well in the five days since his departure. One can only imagine what kind of a meal awaits tennis fans as championship weekend arrives in Paris.

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