There is the not-so-small matter of the men’s semi-finals that still needs to be settled at Wimbledon. If this tournament so far is anything to go by, we’re in for some serious thrillers. The first of the matches to take place at The All England Club on Friday July 14
th 2017 is scheduled for 13:00 (1pm) UK time.
Men’s Semi-Final Draw:
Sam Querrey (24) vs. Marin Cilic (7)
Roger Federer (3) vs. Tomas Berdych (11)
[caption id="attachment_6804" align="alignnone" width="640"] Sam Querrey vs Marin Cilic Head to Head Stats[/caption]
QUERREY (USA) VS CILIC (CRO)
American Sam Querrey ended all British hopes of another hometown hero taking home the coveted Wimbledon crown when he defeated Andy Murray to add to his already growing list of impressive results at this years’ competition. He has beaten Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kevin Anderson and now World Number 1 Andy Murray in consecutive rounds. He rallied back from a set down at the end of the third against the local favourite to take the match in a thrilling five sets – 3-6, 6-4, 6-7, 6-1, 6-1. He now faces the number 7 seed Marin Cilic who came through a tough 5-set encounter of his own against Gilles Muller to secure his place in the last four.
Cilic, like Querrey, will be appearing his first-ever Wimbledon semi-final however unlike his counterpart, the Croatian has a single Grand Slam title to his name with his win at the US Open in 2014 and following a strong showing in Paris where he reached the quarter-finals of Roland Garros for the first time, he will be confident that he can now go on to claim a first victory over Sam Querrey and a spot in the final for the first time to go along with it. 28-year-old Cilic has won all four of his previous meetings against the 29-year-old Querrey including two at Wimbledon in 2009 and then again in 2012, rather memorably, when the fifth set was eventually taken 17-15 by Cilic.
FEDERER (SUI) VS BERDYCH (CZE)
While the dream Murray-Djokovic final may be dead, the fairytale is still well and truly alive for Roger Federer who is now favourite to go on and claim a record 8
th Wimbledon Men’s Singles Title. He looks back to his near-perfect best and has not dropped a single set so far at this years’ edition knocking out Mischa Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic – all seeded in the top 30 – along the way. That ‘Lucky Number’ 7
th title in 2012 seems a distant memory. He has since made the final twice losing out to Novak Djokovic on both occasions in 2014 and 2015. A win at The All England Club in 2017 would take him to 93 career titles and just one behind Ivan Lendl in second place in the open era. He still has some way to go to match Jimmy Connors haul of 109 between 1972 and 1996 in what was a glittering 24 years.
Friday’s semi-final opponent Tomas Berdych finds himself in the last four after Wednesday’s quarter-final opponent and World number 2 Novak Djokovic’s shock retirement two games into the second set citing an elbow injury. Berdych had taken the first set 7-6* (7-2 in the tie-breaker) before taking a 2-0 lead in the second when Djokovic was forced to withdraw. This is Berdych’s sixth semi-final appearance at a Grand Slam. He went on to make the final of Wimbledon in 2010 where he lost out to Rafa Nadal in straight sets.
In 24 previous Federer-Berdcyh clashes, the Swiss has taken victory on 18 occasions. They meet for just the third time at Wimbledon and while five of those Berdych wins came on hard court, his one solo grass court victory over the ‘Grass Master’ came in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2010 on the Czech’s way to the final. Berdych’s last win over Federer in all competitions was in the semi-finals of the Dubai Open in 2013 before Federer beat him in the final a year later.