He broke Murray’s serve at the end of each set to clinch his straight-sets victory, having been able to deny the Scot a single break. I thought Richard played some really good tennis, especially from the backhand side.
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The win sent Federer into his 26th Grand Slam final, where he will face defending champion Novak Djokovic in Sunday’s championship match. It will be their second final together after the Serbian beat the Swiss in 2014. After that, Federer played more determined and even better than the first as he only dropped one point during the rest of his service games.
Federer and Andy Murray gave the crowd a match worthy of a Wimbledon final.
“It’s just an extremely tough time to win these major events because the guys that are around are phenomenal players”. But, while his chances of landing another Major continue to be written off by many, the 33-year-old emphatically demonstrated his remarkable powers of longevity on Friday in a performance that must surely rank among his very best. He is the greatest ever. There’s not enough praise for what he does.
“Obviously (Andre) Agassi played some great tennis into his 30s. It’s his court”.
While Federer’s 56 winners, including a stunning flicked backhand pass at 5-4 in the third set that had a forlorn Murray gazing skywards, ensured the execution was swift. He said he woke up with a stiff shoulder but said the ailment is not serious.
“Boris goes through the emotions with me like when he was playing”, said 2011 and 2014 champion Djokovic who can match Becker’s record of three trophies should he beat Federer.
Turning 34 next month, Federer is the oldest man to make the final since 39-year-old Ken Rosewall in 1974. When the point was over, Federer had secured his place in the finals and earned a rematch against Djokovic, who beat Federer a year ago. He now has 7 Wimbledon titles, tied with Pete Sampras.
Djokovic produced big serves at crucial times and pulled away against Gasquet on Centre Court. “It’s tough to know just now”. “It wasn’t good.” Djokovic forged smoothly ahead early in the second set, but offered a glimmer of hope at 5-4 when he went 0-30 down, only to dial up some unreturnable serves and pinpoint groundstrokes.
In the end, it was Federer’s supernatural ability to not let Murray off the hook and his constant application of pressure that led to his success in the match.
Although the British player hung on in that game, he was never quite the same as Federer quickly served up a love-game in the 11th before Murray buckled to a two-set deficit one game later. And Djokovic somehow found a way to take the first set, winning the tiebreak 7-2. “So definitely it was one of the best serving days of my career”, he said.
Murray found himself under pressure yet again when he was trying to stay in the set and this time, the match at 4-5.
Federer smacked untouchable serves of 125 miles per hour, but also took off the pace and hit the lines with well-placed deliveries. “I’ve won so many Grand Slam titles”.
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Seven-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer hailed his straight-sets semi-final demolition of Andy Murray as one of the best of his career on Friday. He also had 20 aces.
