British star Andy Murray will also face Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in another quarterfinal match at centre court in London.
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His chances have been significantly bolstered by the premature exit of world No.1 Novak Djokovic, downed in four sets by American Sam Querrey.
The 29-year-old carried the burden of being the bookies’ choice easily in his fourth-round victory over Nick Kyrgios.
He wrote in his BBC column: ” When I was younger it was much more hard to stop myself getting carried away with how I was playing or who I was playing.
“Even from when he won here and the US Open, you look at his game and his second serve in particular is so much improved”.
“His clay-court run was awesome so he’s playing really, really well. But it’s really going to be about who can throw the other guy off”. “They’re just striving to get better and better, and he’s certainly done that”.
The statistics support Murray’s case.
Asked about who he was looking forward to seeing, he said: “Always a big Roger fan, always a privilege to come to Wimbledon, favourite day of the two weeks is men’s quarter-finals”.
In 2010, he added Dr Igor Cetojevic to his team of coaches and, on his advice, took up a gluten-free and largely dairy-free diet. It’s what my team feels and how I feel. He is playing closer to the baseline, dictating a lot of the points.’Monday was a much talked-about match (against Nick Kyrgios), people talked about the stress of that one, but he was so focused from start to finish. We didn’t see him expend any energy on anything else apart from the tennis ball and the points.
Murray once again wins the first game of the set in the second frame.
But Tsonga has only three-and-a-bit matches in him since retiring at the French Open and increasingly injuries have been a problem for him as he heads towards the latter stages of his career at 31 years of age.
“Everything will depend on my ability to break him because I am confident I can hold my serve”, claimed Tsonga.
Querrey will next face Canadian sixth seed Milos Raonic, who came back from two sets down for the first time in his career to beat Belgium’s David Goffin.
Murray has been following Wales’ progress to the semi-finals in France, and will hope to finish his quarter-final on Wednesday in time to watch some of their match against Portugal.
It is a standby trope of most top sportspeople to say that they put more pressure on themselves than the media or public ever could but coming from Murray’s lips it is eminently believable, particularly when he points out that his avoidance of the media during Wimbledon fortnight extends to watching other matches with the sound off.
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“I believe that for him to have played the matches he has and to be as good as he is, you have to love the sport”. If he plays well, I’m not on my game, I can lose that match for sure.
