Roger Federer, Andy Murray Advance to Wimbledon Final
By Josh Hill
It took Roger Federer, once the best tennis player in the world, four sets to take down the current World No. 1 Novak Djokovic to advance to his record setting eighth Wimbledon finals appearance. Federer defeated last year’s champ 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and is now just a win away from tying William Renshaw and Pete Sampras’ record seven titles.
The win in Friday’s semifinals serves as a bit of revenge for Federer who has been owned by the new kid on the block Djokovic in six of their last seven meetings. The last time these two met in a semifinals setting was in last months French Open where Djokovic defeated Federer in straight sets.
Friday’s match saw the roof at Centre Court closed due to rain and the rivalry saw it’s first meeting on a grass surface. But Federer knowns Wimbledon — he’s won their seven times already in his legendary career– and he was able to upset the No. 1 seeded (and ranked) Djokavic. The contest was close throughout however with momentum rapidly shifting to either side at various points.
Djokovic showed off his world class return skills as best as he could against the arguably the world’s best service game in Federer. Djokovic was able to break Federer only only once and grabbed the momentum away from Federer after his lighting fast start to the match. Djokovic seemed ready to pull away after the second set as he was owning most of the baseline rallies and was maintaining the serve.
Federer was stuck lunging and extending himself to keep up with the attack from Djokovic.
But after the second match, Federer turned the tables and took full advantage of a visibly exhausted Djokovic. The Serb spoke after the loss that he hadn’t been feeling that great over the course of the last week but didn’t say anymore about it.
Federer quickly started to run away with the contest as Djokovic continued to make mistakes in his game and give Federer points. The match needed with Federer holding at 5-2 when Djokovic’s return landed in the net.
It’s been over two years since Federer won a Grand Slam title and for the 30th consecutive time since the 2005 Australian Open that a Grand Slam final will feature either Federer, Djokovic or this year’s second seed Rafael Nedal. Should Federer claim his eighth title at Wimbledon, he will dethrone his opponent Friday as the World’ No. 1.
The Men’s Wimbledon Final is scheduled for Sunday and Federer will face either Andy Murray of Britain who defeated France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday.
The match was also tightly contested but Murray ended the match on a shot that was ultimately challenged by Murray. The Briton won the call and characteristically pointed to the heavens in victory. The win by Murray ends a drought by English tennis players at Wimbledon.
While Federer is going for his seventh title, Murray is playing in his first ever Wimbledon final and is seeking his first title.