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‘Mickey Mouse’ Melzer proves to be French lion king

PARIS - French Open sensation Jurgen Melzer wears a Mickey Mouse charm around his neck, but it was his lionheart determination which fired him into a first Grand Slam semi-final at the 32nd time of asking.

The 29-year-old Austrian journeyman came from two sets down to defeat world number three Novak Djokovic in a marathon quarter-final which pitched him into a Friday duel against four-time champion Rafael Nadal for a place in the final.

“The mouse is very fast, and I was fast out there today,” said the 22^nd seed, explaining that his girlfriend wears a Minnie Mouse charm.

Until Wednesday’s clash on Court Suzanne Lenglen, which meant third seed Djokovic joined top seed and defending champion Roger Federer and fourth seed Andy Murray on the Roland Garros scrapheap, Melzer existed in tennis’s twilight zone.

Hovering in and around the top 30, he never previously gone beyond the third round at a major and his two tour titles - in Bucharest in 2006 and Vienna in 2009 - barely registered in a sport dominated by Federer and Nadal.

But Melzer, the first Austrian to reach the French Open semi-finals since former champion Thomas Muster in 1995, insists he always had the talent to make it at the elite level.

“I’m a good tennis player,” said Melzer, who was the 1999 Wimbledon junior champion.

“Just a few links here and there were missing. You have to believe in yourself. I have enough game.”

Melzer believes his five-set defeat to Murray in the US Open third round in 2008, when he was just two points from victory, reinforced his belief that he could compete at the highest level.

“That match with Murray when he made the final at the US Open, I had him there. It had to click, and then I started to believe in myself. I started to actually believe I can win those big matches.

“For me, it was never a question of talent. It was more in the head.”

In the first two sets against Djokovic that self-belief had deserted him and when he fell 2-0 down in the third set, it looked all over.

But Melzer won seven games in succession to take the third set and establish an early lead in the fourth.

He was unable to take advantage of seven break points in the eighth game, but clinched the fourth set tie-breaker to set up a nerve-wracking finale.

Melzer wasted two match points, the first with a horrid, tense volley which died in the net with the court at his mercy, but he made no mistake on the third to celebrate a famous 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 win.

“I changed the match,” said the Austrian, when invited to explain how he sparked such a turnaround.

“I told myself, ‘It’s my first quarter-finals in a Grand Slam. Just don’t go away. Just don’t make it easy for him. Fight as much as you can.

“I wasn’t playing so bad. I just missed a lot of easy shots when I had the chance and the opportunity to finish the point. I got back in, and at 2-2 in the third it was an open match.

“I got a little under his skin after the third set. It was the match of my life.”

Now Melzer must ready himself for the ultimate claycourt test by taking on Nadal whose only Paris defeat came in the fourth round in 2009 at the hands of Robin Soderling, who will meet Tomas Berdych in the other semi-final.

Nadal has comfortably defeated Melzer in straight sets in their only two meetings.