Thursday 9 July 2015

Muguruza and Gasquet add spice to semis

The top three men's seeds have manoeuvred their ways to Wimbledon 2015 semi final spots, while the fourth seed threw away a two sets to one lead.  The top women's seed will do battle with the fourth seed in one semi and the other finalist will come from a fight between a debut semi finalist at GS level and the thirteenth seed who was runner up three years ago on the Wimbledon grass.

Federer's progress has been ho hum and Murray has delighted his home fans but provided little interest for anyone else on his way to the inevitable clash with the Swiss former number one.  Andy has the chance to avenge his 2012 final loss to Federer, and I believe that he will - Murray is clearly the second best performed player on tour this year; his progress in GS and Masters events has only ever been blocked by Djokovic, while Federer has won lots of events, but only outside of the big ones.

Roger is at his most dangerous on grass, but so increasingly is Murray, and his returning can cause enough problems to see him reach the final.

Novak Djokovic had a huge wake up call when down two sets to love against Anderson in the fourth round, but other than that he has been impeccable and nothing but the very best of Gasquet will be enough to go close to preventing a third successive final for the world number one and a chance to defend his title.

Serena Williams has another battle with Maria Sharapova, a task with which she has dealt successfully since losing to the 17 year old version of Maria in the 2004 final here.  No evidence has been presented to suggest that the Russian fourth seed will block Williams in her quest for GS title number 21.

Of tremendous interest is the second semi final where exciting Spanish player Garbine Muguruza has the firepower to worry Agnieszka Radwanska.  Neither were expected to last this long in the tournament but they have performed with style and class, and in Muguruza's case plenty of raw power.  It is the power which, if harnessed properly, can be the factor to drive the 21 year old to a surprise final appearance against Serena, and who knows what may occur after that.

As I write, Radwanska has taken the second set to level the first semi final against Muguruza - a great start to Women's Semi Final Day.

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