His two-set deficit in the Wimbledon quarter-finals already erased, Andy Murray evened the fifth at 4-4, looked into the Centre Court stands and shook his fist.
“Come on,” he bellowed. “Come on, now.”
Already riled up by the Scot’s comeback from a two-set deficit, the 15,000 or so spectators stood and roared even louder.
Photo: AFP
It has been 77 years since a British man won the country’s Grand Slam tennis tournament, and Murray is giving the locals reason to believe that wait will end on Sunday.
Buoyed by a boisterous partisan crowd, the second-seeded Murray got past 54th-ranked Fernando Verdasco of Spain 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5 on Wednesday to complete his seventh career comeback after trailing by two sets.
“Great atmosphere at the end of the match ... I love it when it’s like that. It was extremely noisy,” said Murray, who lost last year’s Wimbledon final to Roger Federer. “They were right into it, pretty much every single point.”
Into the semi-finals at the All England Club for the fifth consecutive year, Murray will face No. 24 Jerzy Janowicz of Poland today. The other semi-final is No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia against No. 8 Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina.
“For sure, [the] crowd will not really help me, but we’ll see how it’s going to be,” said Janowicz, the first Polish man to get to the final four at a major tournament. “This is my first semi-final ever, so I don’t know what to expect.”
The rest of the guys left are more accustomed to being at this stage. Especially Djokovic, who extended his streak to 13 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals — second in history only to Roger Federer’s 23 — by beating No. 7 Tomas Berdych 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-3.
Djokovic entered Wednesday with a 13-2 lead in their head-to-head series, but one loss came at Wimbledon in 2010, when Berdych was the runner-up, and the other came in their most recent meeting, at Rome in May. Wednesday’s first set was tight as can be, and Berdych led 5-4 in the tiebreaker, before faltering. He sent a return long, badly missed what should have been a routine backhand, then pushed a forehand wide for another error.
That gave Djokovic the opening set, but Berdych responded strongly, breaking twice to lead 3-0 in the second. Not surprisingly, Djokovic awoke again, taking seven of the next eight games.
“I don’t know how I managed to turn the second set around,” said six-time major champion Djokovic, who won Wimbledon in 2011. “I managed to step in and just tried to be a little bit more aggressive. That brought me a victory.”
He has won all 15 sets he has played the past one and a half weeks, as has Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion, after his 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) win against David Ferrer.
At the start, though, things looked grim for Del Potro. On the fifth point against Ferrer, the 198cm Argentine’s left foot slid out from under him as he sprinted to reach a ball. Del Potro’s heavily wrapped left knee, which he hyperextended on a face-first tumble in the third round, slackened, then bent backward.
“Really painful,” Del Potro said. “I was scared.”
He fell to the turf and rolled over twice, then stayed down until a trainer came out to check on him and dispense anti-inflammatory medicine.
“Magic pills,” Del Potro called them.
After a 10-minute break, he resumed playing — and playing quite well.
He has until today to get ready for his third career major semi-final, and first at Wimbledon. Del Potro is 3-8 against Djokovic, but won their most recent meeting (at Indian Wells in March) and their only previous encounter at the All England Club (in the bronze-medal match at last year’s Olympics).
Murray was far from his best for the first hour-plus against Verdasco, whose powerful serves and go-for-the-lines big cuts made things difficult.
“It was a tough situation,” Murray said afterward.
One he might not have been able to get through in the past, he acknowledged.
However, Murray has matured as a tennis player. Twelve months ago, he wept after losing to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final, dropping to 0-4 in Grand Slam title matches.
Four weeks later, also at the All England Club, Murray defeated Federer for an Olympic gold medal. Then Murray finally earned a major championship, beating Djokovic in five sets at the US Open.
Murray then reached a third consecutive Grand Slam final at the Australian Open in January, but lost to Djokovic there.
All of that recent success helped Murray against Verdasco.
In the second round of the girls’ doubles yesterday, Anett Kontaveit of Estonia and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia knocked out Taiwan’s Hsu Ching-wen and Kamonwan Buayam of Thailand 6-2, 6-3.
Additional reporting by staff writer
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
One of Malaysia’s top soccer clubs has pulled out of today’s season-opening Charity Shield after a spate of assaults, including an acid attack, on players in the country. It leaves the kickoff of Malaysia’s season this weekend under a cloud following the unprecedented acts of violence against players, which have left the country shocked and angry. Authorities said they have imposed tighter security, but Selangor said that they would not play in the showpiece curtain-raiser against Malaysian Super League champions Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) citing “a series of criminal incidents and recent threats.” Selangor and Malaysia winger Faisal Halim is in intensive care