Murray was a four-set victor both times on the grass of the All England Club and given Tsonga’s lack of matches of late and the current form of the Scot it seems unlikely that Jo will knock Andy off his perch on Wednesday afternoon.
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But that’s not all.
After the match, Federer realized what a special victory this was, but also felt for Cilic. Djokovic has already beaten Murray in two Grand Slam finals this earlier this season to capture the Australian Open and the French Open.
Murray said: “Obviously it was a tough match”.
Berdych is one win away from reaching his second Grand Slam final six years after losing to Rafael Nadal in the Wimbledon title match. 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. “He’s one of the greatest grass-court players in the world”.
Andy Murray wins five consecutive games to start the second set, putting himself in a position to win set point nearly immediately out the gate.
It’s been since Wimbledon in 2013 that Murray has hoisted a Grand Slam trophy (his second), and 2012 since Federer has done so, the most recent of his 17 majors won. But David Goffin did have him down 2-0 before Raonic recovered to win the next three sets.
So when he held a break point in the opening game, things were looking bleak for Murray.
Tsonga had played superbly to win four games in a row to finish the fourth, hitting his serve with power and accuracy, thumping his forehand and finding unexpected winners off his supposedly weaker backhand wing. I feel like, ‘Better play well.
The way he dug deep to subdue Tsonga’s onslaught after surrendering a two-set lead spoke volumes for Murray’s refusal to buckle in the face of adversity – a characteristic exemplified by a formidable 23-7 record in matches that have gone the five-set distance.
The world number two had cruised into the last eight but was taken the distance by Jo-Wilfried Tsonga before coming through 7-6 (12/10) 6-1 3-6 4-6 6-1 after three hours and 53 minutes. However Tsonga has pedigree on this surface, and showed why by forcing a first set tie break. The Frenchman’s errors were rapidly totting up as Murray kept his own head and took the set 6-1.
You can also catch up with all of the day’s action on the BBC Sport website.
But the momentum was to switch markedly in the third set.
Murray’s clash with Tsonga is likely to start at around 4pm this afternoon, but the exact timing depends on Federer’s match with Cilic. He pulled things back to deuce, only for Tsonga to work another chance, and this time he converted: 4-4.
Is it frustrating for him to see Lendl in Murray’s corner?
“I came back strong in the third and fourth, but I didn’t play well in the fifth”. To lose that set 6-4 was hard.
“I just tried to use all my energy at the start of the fifth set to get myself pumped up and thankfully I got the early break and managed to hang onto it”.
In the semis the homecountry favorite will face the No. 10 seed Berdych, who on Wednesday beat No. 32 seed Lucas Pouille of France 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2. The 10th-seeded Czech’s fourth-round match against Jiri Vesely was stopped after four sets on Monday, and he completed the victory on Tuesday. They have, though, never played on grass, and Murray admitted it could be a tight affair.
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Querrey defeated Novak Djokovic in the third round, becoming the first American to beat a top-ranked player at Wimbledon since Kevin Curren downed McEnroe in the 1985 quarterfinals. He had a tough battle and came through against Vesely.
