Serena had a splendid 2015 winning the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon.
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Yelling at his entourage and muttering to himself, the No. 2-seeded Murray alternated between brilliant and bad for the better part of two sets while dealing with a French opponent and a partisan crowd Wednesday, before righting things to beat No. 9 Richard Gasquet 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-0, 6-2 and reach his fourth semifinal at Roland Garros.
The Scot hardly put a foot wrong as he triumphed 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-2 to line up a showdown with world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. He won Rome; final in Madrid; semifinal in Monaco.
Austrian 13th seed Thiem is into his first at the majors as he finally realises the potential which was spotted during his days when he used to lift tree-trunks to beef up his physique.
“I had to play my best tennis on some points”, Djokovic said. All the rain tightened the schedule to the point that players will compete several days in a row to get to the final, instead of enjoying a major’s usual off-days. I’m sure he’s going to give it all in semis. But I have something to fight for as well. Both are great returners as well, with Gasquet maybe having the slight advantage, having won 23 of his return games so far as opposed to Murray’s 17, despite the fact that the latter have played more games in total.
Thiem got his first break in the third set but that spurred a purring Djokovic back into action and his opponent, who won the Nice tournament last month, had no answers. It will be the pair’s seventh meeting in a Grand Slam final.
So I think as Novak says it should be a good one and if Thiem doesn’t win Friday, I think eventually he will. He is also on a run of nine successive victories on clay after winning the Geneva Open title before arriving here.
Standing between Murray and his goal of completing a career Grand Slam of final appearances is reigning champion Stan Wawrinka.
“I have been dreaming all year long of reaching the Roland Garros final”. The Scot was in a spot of bother early on, relying too heavily on his Achilles’ heel – the drop shot – to allow Gasquet, the last Frenchman in the draw, to recover from 2-5 down to take the first set on the back of five straight games.
He then needed another five sets to beat French wildcard Mathias Bourgue, the world 164. On clay, meanwhile, he has lost all three matches in straight sets.
He has even seen the torrential rain act in his favor. “Stan had been playing better every match here”. Then a two-day break where you’re barely hitting any balls because of the [weather] conditions…
The fans, including one dressed as a freaky green-horned dragon, could not be kept away once Murray and Wawrinka came out for their highly anticipated semi-final.
The 31-year-old Swiss is the oldest semi-finalist in Paris since Jimmy Connors in 1985. Murray leads their career head-to-head 8-7 but has never beaten Wawrinka on clay.
Andy Murray’s voice cracked as he tried to sum up what his latest piece of British tennis history meant to him.
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That left Murray and defending champion Wawrinka to grab Centre Court billing and while the Swiss conjured some blazing backhands to whip the noisy crowd into a frenzy, the winners were rare as he surrendered his Roland Garros crown with a 6-4 6-2 4-6 6-2 defeat by the British second seed.
