His 2013 championship broke a 77-year drought for Great Britain, and Murray would love nothing more than to follow-up that title after just three years. He won so many tournaments. Those who paid for a ticket certainly got their money’s worth, having earlier seen Roger Federer escape from two sets down for an epic comeback win against Marin Cilic.
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The pair have faced off 16 times before with Murray controlling the match-up 12-4. After the second set I thought it was going to go to Murray easily, but obviously things didn’t go to plan. Two years have passed since I played him here in the semi-finals. That set went to tiebreak on multiple occasions within the tiebreak, with Murray finally managing to come out on top. Tsonga manages to save set point in the sixth game with a 40-30 win.
Slowly but surely Murray is scratching his name alongside the all-time grasscourt greats on Wimbledon’s hallowed lawns.
However, all those expectations appeared to be heading for the dustbin as Cilic stood one point away from victory – not once, not twice, but three times in a pulsating fourth set that had everyone on the edge of their seats. However, as far as Tsonga was concerned, the match had only just begun. Murray has an 8-6 head-to-head record against Berdych but has won the past four matches, losing only one set.
However, the crowd were to be treated to their second marathon match of the day as Tsonga cut loose in the third set and unleashed his explosive power to assert some dominance at last.
Murray was desperate not to drop a set but the Frenchman’s huge forehand was cutting through his superb defences and, although the Scot saved a set point at 5-2 behind, a 132mph serve was enough for Tsonga to take it.
By the time most of the fans returned to their seats, Murray already had the advantage after two double faults from the Frenchman donated a break of serve, but Tsonga put his nervy start behind him to level at 4-4. Highlights include all of Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 matches as well as tennis tournaments and some of the FA Cup and Capital One Cup games to name just few. After staring at the brink of elimination in the first one-and-a-half hours against Murray, he and the world number two boil down the quarterfinal match to one final frame.
Murray claimed the first set via a tie-break, before strolling through the second with two break points in the bag to go 2-0 ahead. “Andy was a little better than me in this last set”.
“Physically, you’re strong, that helps for sure”. The fourth set was the key, I did not want that the match was decided by the fifth set. Is it that bad?”, before adding: “There’s a lot more hopes than me.
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American Sam Querrey made it through Novak Djokovic and successfully landed in his first career quarterfinals matchup, but his 2016 Wimbledon bid came to an end there.
