Day 10 of Wimbledon was the men’s quarter finals. After the shocks of the earlier rounds the men’s draw had seemed to return to a sense of normality, with 5 top ten seeded players still in the draw.
World number one Novak Djokovic beat Tomas Berdych 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 6-3 to set up a semi final with Juan Martin del Potro, who beat David Ferrer 6-2 6-4 7-6 (7-5). Both of these men have not dropped a set all tournament, with their semi final looking to be an explosive one.
On the other side of the draw Jerzy Janowiscz, with 24th seed, took advantage of the earlier upsets to book his place in the semi finals. The Pole, who stands at 6″8 and serves up to 140 miles per hour, beat his compatriot Lukasz Kubot 7-5 6-4 6-4.
The story of the day was in the match between the British second seed Andy Murray and the Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
In a thrilling match Murray eventually prevailed in five sets, winning 4-6 3-6 6-1 6-4 7-5, finally breaking the Spaniard at 5-5 in the fifth set to serve out the match. Murray, who has a long winning streak on grass stretching back to the start of the Queen’s tournament, looked jaded in the first two sets and made some poor decisions.
However, he came back strongly in the third and fourth sets to set up a decider, which he went on to win on a wave of popular support.
Day 11 of Wimbledon was dominated by the women’s semi finals, and the guaranteed prospect of a brand new winner of the women’s singles.
For the spectator, the first match of the day was a massive disappointment. Mario Bartoli comprehensively defeated an uninspired Kirsten Flipkens 6-1 6-2 in just over an hour. Flipkens, who seemingly had an off day after a stunning run in the tournament, called a trainer in after a knee problem, and had no answer to the massive serving game of Bartoli, who lost in the final to Venus Williams in 2007.
For the crowd, the match was a disappointment, as Bartoli’s victory was comprehensive and thorough.
However, the second semi-final turned out to be one of the best matches of the entire tournament. Sabine Lisicki, the woman who knocked out the massive favourite Serena Williams in the fourth round, defeated fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4 2-6 9-7 in the longest match of the women’s draw so far.
After serving out the first set, Lisicki seemingly lost her way, falling apart in the second set and going 3-0 down in the final set. A crowd favourite due to her spectacular tournament so far, Lisicki was lifted by the crowd a staged an incredible fightback, counter-breaking Radwanska and eventually taking the last set 9-7 to massive cheers from the Centre Court crowd.
Lisicki, the first German to make it to the Wimbledon final since the legendary Steffi Graf in 1999, is now surely the favourite for Saturday’s final, but Bartoli’s history in the tournament implies that the match will be a hard-fought one.
