Roger Federer saved three match points to beat Marin Cilic 6-7 (4/7), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (11/9), 6-3 and reach a record-equalling 11th Wimbledon semi-final on Wednesday.
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The 30-year-old, who blasted Pouille off Court One with 35 winners and 10 aces, will play former Wimbledon champion Andy Murray or French 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Friday’s semifinals.
In 2013, Murray became the first British man to win the title at Wimbledon in 77 years.
“To win a match like this, to test the body, to be out there again fighting, being in a physical battle and winning it is an unbelievable feeling”, the third seed said after surging back from two-sets down for the 10th time in his career.
“Tsonga is a pretty good player, one of the best grass-court players in the world and he came up with some great shots at big moments”.
“Everything kind of went very quickly”.
Already trailing two sets to none, he was down love-40 while serving at 3-all in the third. It was an emotional win, always [is] when you come back from two sets to love.
On Friday, Federer faces No. 6 Milos Raonic, a 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 victor against No. 28 Sam Querrey, the man who surprised No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the third round. Now here they are, nearly 17 full years later, both in the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the 11th time.
But for an hour and a half it looked like history repeating itself. Fed would fend off five match points in the frame and takes the set 6-4 to set up a decider.
Federer struggled to read Cilic’s serve at first, making 20 out of 36 returns in the first set and 11 out of 26 in the second.
“I wasn’t seeing his serves anymore”, Federer said.
“I would say obviously in those situations, slight hesitation comes into your body”, said Cilic, whose sole major success was that 2014 title in NY. Whatever, those three breakpoints, after I fought them off, I did believe. “Yes, I did surprise myself, in quite a big way actually”, SuperSport reported him as saying. He saved them all, then broke Cilic in the next game when Cilic double-faulted. Far from it. And at 9-9, he scampered to his forehand corner to retrieve a Cilic drive down the line. This time, it was Cilic who served big to get out of trouble.
After Federer’s heroics earlier in the day, a second Centre Court comeback seemed possible. “So it was great on so many levels”, said Federer, who faces Milos Raonic in the semis. There’s a lot more hopes left than me.
Federer won’t need to be told of the danger Raonic presents.
The 34-year-old also claimed a new record for Grand Slam match wins of 307 as he made a 40th semifinal at the majors.
In the tiebreak, Federer led 5-3 but Cilic pegged him back.
Next up is sixth seed Raonic on Friday in a rematch of their 2014 semi-final, which the Swiss won in straight sets, before the Canadian hired three-time champion John McEnroe to add finesse and grasscourt guile to his explosive serving game. “I hope to do better than last time”. The Croatian won 87 percent of his first-serve points but then Federer managed to set the record for Grand Slam single victories with his 307th. “It just was continuous, I don’t know, for an hour or two”. “I’m very, very happy”.
Andy Murray of Britain celebrates after defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France during their men’s singles quarterfinal match on day ten of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Wednesday, July 6, 2016.
Andy Murray (2) bt. Cilic failed to take advantage of Federer’s second serve, hitting another forehand return into the net.
In the fourth set, Cilic had more chances to put Federer away but couldn’t. He stared at a break point to start the fifth, yet a Tsonga slip contributed to the 2008 Australian Open finalist putting a backhand into the net, much to the crowd’s relief.
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That match was just incredible.
