Right well time for an update on the men's and ladies events at the 2014 Wimbledon championships and today's action, covering day 9, which saw the men's and ladies quarter final matches get under way, so let's give them a look....
Soooooo to start with the ladies first we already had the first two quarter final matches played yesterday so today we had the remaining two. And the first was between Sabine Lisicki and Simona Halep, with Lisicki being the slight favourite given her grass court skills. And Sabine got off to the better start as she broke Halep to move ahead, but it was short lived as Halep eventually broke back and broke Lisicki herself to close out the opening set. In the 2nd set it was all Halep as Lisicki's challenge faded totally and the young Romanian raced to victory winning the match and sealing her place in her first Wimbledon semi final with an emphatic 6-4, 6-0 victory. Well Halep's consistency this year and last year has been remarkable so far and she has continued it here at Wimbledon and given her high standard of play she remains a strong favourite to win the title, as she reached the final at the French Open I think she can go one step further this time.
Which brings me onto the second quarter final match which was between Angelique Keber and the rising star, the Canadian Eugenie Bouchard. This match promised to be quite a tough encounter, however the young Canadian made a strong start and broke Kerber to take the lead and the first set. In the 2nd set Bocuhard went up a double break, but Kerber managed to wrestle one of the breaks back but it was in vain in the end as the Genie rubbed her lamp (poor pun sorry!) and served her way to victory to seal her 3rd consecutive grand slam semi final of the year with a 6-3, 6-4 win.
So this sets up the ladies semi finals which are very intruiging as we have two Czeck players on one side, Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova, and on the other we have Simona Halep and Eugenie Bouchard, both of which are potentially excellent matches. So who will win out of these two???? Well I would have to go with Kvitova for the all Czeck encounter as she has already won Wimbledon, so she has been there before and I can see her hold her nerve a bit better than Safarova can, but I might be wrong, but time will tell. As for the other match between Halep and Bouchard well this promises to be a real cracker and I think it could well be one of the best matches of the ladies tournament as these two are already developing a fledgling rivalry and there is no clear favourite in this either as they are both playing very well and are also both aggressive chance takers. However I think Halep might just edge this one and she will reach her 2nd grand slam final, but it will be a real tight match and one to watch out for.
Now onto the men's action starting with Novak Djokovic who took on the big Croatian, Marin Cilic for a place in the semis, which promised to be quite a stern test for the Serb. And it proved to be just that as Cilic was more than up to the task of challenging Nole as after Novak took the opening set, Cilic fought back and nabbed a two sets to one lead, putting Nole in some hot water. However the Serb was able to weather the storm as he broke Cilic twice in the 4th set to level the match and he went on to secure a double break again in the 5th, which saw Nole overcome the Croat's challenge after a tough 6-1, 3-6, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory. This was a real stern test for Novak but in the end he showed his champion qualities again, although his movement was somewhat hampered by the shoes he was wearing earlier in the match as he kept slipping all over the place and at one point asked for his head coach, Boris Becker, for some new ones, which helped him glide almost a la Federer like! ;-) So Novak remains on course for the final and it has to be said he still is a top contender to win the title as many predicted before the start of the tournament.
Next up we had Roger Federer who took on his fellow Swiss compatriot, Stan Wawrinka in an all Swiss quarter final. And so far Roger has had it all easy street, but in this round he faced his first test as Stan put Roger through his paces and took the opening set with a break, which was the first set Roger had dropped in the tournament. However Rog did what he does and fought back, showing his grass court mastery, he went on to secure the second set on a tiebreak, and he soon went to grab the 3rd set to take a two sets to one lead. In the 4th set Roger made his move and got the break as Stan's challenge finally started to dwindle but Stan made a last ditch effort to try and break back to go 5-5 but in the end Roger closed the door after five match points he sealed his place in the semis for the first time in two years after a tricky 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 result. Well this was the result that was predicted by most people but Stan did well enough to push Fed and take the opening set as well as nearly breaking back at the end of the match. As for Roger well he is looking very good indeed and he might just yet be on course to win his record breaking 8th Wimbledon title.
After that we had the battle of the young guns, the newcomer Nick Kyrgios who toppled Rafa in the 4th round and the big Canadian server, Milos Raonic. And Nick started in the same fashion as he did against Rafa by taking the opening set on a tiebreak, which is no mean feat against a player with Raonic's serve! However as play went on the young Aussie looked increasingly out of his depth and Raonic showed his class and greater experience to take a two sets to one lead. In the fourth set however it was a tight affair and play went by serve into another tiebreak, but this time it was Raonic that took control and got the minibreak and won the match with an ace to reach his first ever grand slam semi final after a hard fought 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 result. With this win Raonic continues to show his ascent to the top of the men's game and I'm sure given his form that this could be the first of many semi finals as the more experienced Raonic will become and the better he develops the rest of his game, combined with his formidable serve, he will be very tough to beat. However as Raonic is next up against Roger Federer I don't quite rate his chances of beating the Fedster just yet in the majors. Raonic will be a tough proposition for Federer but I think in the end Roger will defeat the big Canadian in four sets.
And last but not least we had the defending champion, Andy Murray, take on the Bulgarian tennis star, Grigor Dimitrov in a much anticipated clash for a place in the semis. This was always going to be a tough match for Andy to negotiate but most folk would have seen him as being able to negotiate his way through it. However......... it turned out to be not the cast as despite a good first service hold, Andy's game went downhill real fast as Dimitrov started off sharp and aggressive and he went on to break Andy twice, who made careless unforced errors to surrender the first set in just over 20 minutes. In the 2nd set, Andy once again struggled on his serve and he dropped it as Dimitrov took a 4-3 lead, however the seemingly unstoppable Bulgarian showed his first sign of nerves as Andy broke back to go 4-4 and from here play went to a tiebreak, but once again Andy surrendered the breaker making some errors, which saw Dimitrov take a two set lead over the defending champion, much to the stunned British crowd. And in the 3rd set with Andy facing a steep mountain to climb, coming back from two sets down, in the end there was no coming back as he was broken twice and with that he relinquished his title as the young Dimitrov took the win of his career by defeating Andy Murray in straight sets 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 to reach his first Wimbledon semi final.
Well to say this wasn't the result we were expecting would be a total understatement as I for one thought that Andy would have battled his way through this one, given the form he has shown at Wimbledon over the last five years or so, he has managed to fight his way into the semi finals, but this time it wasn't to be. And the one thing that was so perplexing about this match was Andy's total reversal of form, as in his first four matches of the tournament he looked sharp, in control and well poised to defend his title. But as soon as Andy took to the court against Dimitrov he looked flat and the old Andy Murray seemed to surface again as he had that hangdog look and as the match progressed he looked deflated and a beaten man, and it was shadow of the man we had seen last week and on Monday! Andy said afterwards it was just not his day and he played a poor match and at this level and this stage in a grand slam he simply cannot afford to play like that against high ranked quality opponents such as Dimitrov as he racked so many unforced errors, 37 in total over three sets.
And in a way it was understandable that Andy would lose to Rafa in such an emphatic way, but for Andy to lose to Dimitrov in this way is quite worrying and it shows that he appears to be suffering from a lack of belief in his own game just now. And its Andy's wild moments of inconsistency are what cost him these matches and I still find it hard to believe how he could go from playing so well one week to being so bad the next, but then as they say you don't which Andy Murray you will get on court from one day to the next. Perhaps however part of the problem was that his title defence in the first week was too easy and he simply wasn't tested and going into the second week that left him at a serious disadvantage and maybe if he had been tested earlier it might have given some mental resilience going into the second week. And this was I think of some help to Andy two years ago when he first reached the final as he had a very tough draw that year, but mentally it helped him stay strong until he finally reached the final. But this time Andy struggled very early on with Dimitrov and despite showing some promise in the 2nd set as soon as he lost that set it was all over.
There was also some press speculation that during the match Andy yelled toward his box a couple of expletives which were "shut the fuck up!" and more obscurely "five fucking minutes before the match!". This would suggest that something happened behind the scenes before the match that threw Andy off his game completely, and obviously it had a bad effect on him and even Dimitrov speculated that Andy didn't seem to be hitting the ball as cleanly during the warmup prior to the match. There has also been further suggestions that Andy had an argument with his girlfriend Kim Sear, prior to the match as it was later said he left Wimbledon alone later without her as she normally drives him to and from the All England Club. However this is just press speculation and hot air really as we don't know what happened and just maybe all it was, was simply a bad day at the office indeed, so these tabloid stories should of course be taken with a big pinch of salt. And if you look at the last day before that we had Maria Sharapova and Rafa both exit the tournament as well, so at least Andy had company and it showed even the very best can have their bad days.
However it has to be said that Grigor Dimitrov really deserves a great deal of credit for his performance on court today as he really dominated Andy from the get go and despite a few edgy moments in the second set, he was in full control of the match, especially after he took the two set lead. And now that Dimitrov has made that breakthrough in the slams I think he can go on and possibly even win the title, although he still will have to beat Djokovic in the semis and possibly Federer in the final. However Dimitrov has already beaten Djokovic as well as he defeated him last year in Madrid in a thrilling three set match so if he can try and draw on that experience he might just have a shot, not to mention his game is much more suited to grass than Djokovic's is and the match itself promises to be a real cracker. However I still would have to say that Djokovic is the favourite to win that one and I would favour him to reach the final instead of the rising Bulgarian, but we'll see. So my prediciton for this match will be Djokovic in four very tight sets or at a pinch maybe five but whatever the result it promises to be a real cracker and let's hope it lives up to expectation.
So getting back to Andy Murray well that's his Wimbledon title defence come to an end and it happened in a very disappointing way as Andy ended with a whimper and not a bang, similar to his defeat to Rafa at the French Open last month. And on the basis of this match Andy has a lot of work ahead of him if he wants to get back to really competing with the top players and he has said that himself he needs to train harder and get physically stronger if he his to stay with the new guys coming up to the top such as Dimitrov and Raonic. It will also see Andy's ranking plummet once more as he will take a hit on points for losing in the quarter finals, he will lose 1620 ranking points out of his 2000 for the title defence and it will see his ranking plummet from No.5 to No.10 which is quite a drop and not good. So Andy will need to work very hard over the final swing of the season if he wants to qualify to play the ATP world tour finals championships in London in November.
On the plus side Andy will stand to gain alot of points during the American hard court swing in Toronto and Cincinnati and if he can reach the quarter finals of the US Open he will at least have defended his points there from last year. On top of that Andy missed the remaining part of the tour last year after he underwent the back surgery so he will be able to pick up some points there as well which will go toward his ranking and hopefully will see him qualify for London at the o2. In the meantime I think Andy should probably consider some short term goals such as trying to win smaller tournaments just to try and build his confidence again and putting himself in a winning position as opposed to going flat out to win the big Masters titles is in itself very tough to do given the depth of competition in the men's game, but I guess we'll see what happens. And if you look at 2010 Andy Murray also had a poor season after he failed to win the Australian open final that year, losing to Federer, and he later on that season went on to win two Masters titles in Toronto and Shanghai that year, beating Federer in both finals, but alot has changed since then of course. So what Andy needs to do in the meantime is try and get his fitness back to 100 percent, improve the aspects of his game that need sharpening and take it from there.
But what he has to try and change is the nature of his defeats in the slams as three out of the last four defeats Andy has suffered in grand slam matches have been in straight sets and two of those came in losing his title defences at the US Open last year and of course this year at Wimbledon. And this for me is one of the biggest concerns as it really sees Andy has started to regress back to his old self, where he was self doubting, looking up at his box and cursing on court, its not what we expect of him as a major champion. And its the nature of his tame defeats that basically sends out a bad message to all the other players out there that Andy is now becoming very beatable not only on the tour but also in the majors. So there is alot of work to be done if Andy is to try and get back to where he wants to be and that somehow or other has to change. And whether or not Amelie Mauresmo can help him in that department remains to be seen and Andy will need to make a decision if they will continue with their partnership, so its a rocky road that lies ahead for the British No.1 as his decidedly mixed season continues.
But in spite of it all I still think Andy will come back stronger and hopefully start winning titles again in the near future and I already see parallels between Andy this year and Federer last year, who struggled badly and endured one of the worst years of his career in 2013 but this year he has come back strong and is play great again. So I think its far too early to start writing Andy off and in time he will get back on top of his game and compete again with the very best.
So that's it for now I will be back soon with more results.
Bye the nowww.
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