The victor of the clash will play either seven-time champion Federer or in-form Canadian Milos Raonic, who meet in the first semi-final.
Advertisement
Britain Tennis – Wimbledon – All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, Wimbledon, England – 6/7/16 Fra …
To get there, Murray will first have to defeat Berdych, against whom he has won eight matches and lost six. “I don’t normally speak to Dani during tournaments unless we actually see each other when we are there”.
“It’s not as though he came into this playing poorly and suddenly he’s found his form at Queen’s”. Might be a small amount but every little bit helps.
“It’s nice that the players I’m playing against say I’m playing more aggressive because everyone’s only said I’ve played aggressive when Ivan (Lendl) has been coaching me”.
In their head-to-head so far Berdych has only been able to hold his serve against Murray 77.4% of the time and in the past year that falls to 57.6%, while the Czech has failed to break Murray once in that time.
“Since the back surgery, I have been playing – as Tomas said – more offensive tennis, with a lot of variety and making it harder for him to play his game”.
“Andy is so professional, he wants to succeed in all his goals”. He knows what it takes. “I think that’s the difference between him at the beginning of his career and now”.
“And he also has a good fun side off the court”.
“You spend so much time together, you have got to have fun”.
He said: “Once you get into the match I really only concentrate on what’s going on on the court, the people in my box”. “We’ve played a few times over the last couple of years on different surfaces, but never on grass”.
Another opening passed by Pouille and he was made to rue that as Berdych took control early in the breaker, the 30-year-old racing into a 5-1 lead before converting his first set point with a booming forehand.
“The top four or five guys don’t really have any weaknesses and yet they still try to improve those tiny percentages when it is not easy to find those percentages”.
“He hits a big ball and likes to dictate, so I need to make sure I keep him on the back foot as much as possible in Friday’s semi-final”.
Berdych asked to continue the match on Centre Court, but his request fell on deaf ears, although after a night’s sleep he finished off the job. Her commanding performance was as expected for the world No. 1, though it is also an overall successful tournament for Vesnina, who entered this Wimbledon with a career record of 219-216 and reached her first Grand Slam semifinal. Berdych won the first at the French Open in 2010 but lost to Murray in the last four at the US Open in 2012, where the Scot won his first grand slam title, and the Australian Open past year.
Advertisement
“I approached Ivan when he stopped working with Andy the first time”, Berdych said.
