You may remember if you’ve been keeping up with the Wimbledon roundups here at Fortitude that on Monday I said Andy Murray should have a pretty straightforward clash with Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals which took place today. Looking at the head to head record and basing my opinion on current form, it wasn’t such an outlandish thing to say; however I have now banned myself from making such statements as what happened in that match today was almost catastrophic for the Brit’s hopes at this tournament.
Andy Murray had been prolific at this tournament up to today’s match, winning every match in straight sets and not missing a beat, exerting himself when he had to but saving his energy wherever he could. The form guide went out of the window today though against his Spanish opponent as the Britton looked stiff, uncomfortable and off the boil for a lot of the match as the dream of becoming Britain’s first male singles winner in 77 years was close to being left in tatters. Fortunately though, Murray displayed the qualities that have made him such a formidable player over the years as he fought back tremendously to break the Spaniard’s resolve before it was too late. Being two sets down, Murray had to and did find an extra gear in the third set and won it 6-1 before Verdasco pulled out a few more stops to make the next two sets almost unbearably tight to watch as a fan. However Murray, who looked very average for a good chunk of the match, found his usual world-class play when it counted and left it very late in the 4th and 5th sets to knock the Spaniard out of the competition and allow his Wimbledon dream to live on and fight another day. Murray will now face 24th seed Jerzy Janovicz in the semi-finals, the first Polish player to reach a grand-slam singles semi-final; he’s an imposing individual with a very powerful serve and a good all-round game.
Novak Djokovic, unlike Murray, has managed to maintain his straight-sets victory streak at this year’s tournament going and will have his chance to maintain that record in the semi-finals against Argentinian powerhouse, Juan Martin Del Potro. Djokovic overcame former Wimbledon finalist, Tomas Berdych in almost no time at all but did struggle with the Czech early on as the first set went to a tiebreak. However from there on in the supreme athleticism of the world number one carried him through as Berdych threw the kitchen sink at Djokovic in a desperate attempt to tame his opponent and gain a foothold in the match but it wasn’t to be and another straight-sets victory was clinched by the Serbian.
As impressive as Djokovic and Murray’s victories were though, Juan Martin Del Potro’s was arguably even more impressive as he dismantled David Ferrer in straight sets. However it wasn’t as simple as that because in the first game, Del Potro was badly injured as he hyper-extended his knee reaching for a return. From then on in the Argentine was heavily strapped up and was clearly, and rightly so, discomforted by the situation he was in but came through in emphatic fashion winning 6-2, 6-4, 7-6(5). The feat was made more impressive by the fact that Ferrer has been in the form of his life as far as his grass-court play is concerned and yet he was made to look quite average against Del Potro’s relentless spirit. He will now face Djokovic in what will be both players’ toughest challenge in the tournament to date.
We’ll be covering every day of the Championship from here on in but for the extensive results and all the news from today’s action at Wimbledon be sure to head over to the official Wimbledon website!