Wimbledon 2016 - Mens Quarterfinals

First topic message reminder :

Schedule and Live Scores.

All four QFs are intriguing.

Raonic v Querrey - Raonic played a five-setter vs Goffin, while Querrey has been good nick. An upset with Querrey coming through, perhaps?

Federer v Cilic - Federer may have reached his limit. A miracle is needed for him to go through. I keep Pancho at the back of mind, though.

Berdych v Pouille - Big stage for Pouille. Berdych has experience, but Pouille has youth. The Vesely match may help Pouille with a bit of confidence.

MotD - Murray v Tsonga. Tsonga is a dangerous Grass player. Murray's taming of Kyrgios should give him faith in his own ability to get to Final.

Federer "It's encouraging to see I'm improving. My legs were there, my back was there. Mentally this will give me a hell of a boost."

Sounds ominous for the rest.

It sounds to me from the media reports and the above quote that Federer continues to steadily improve throughout the tournament. He only needs to hit very top form for one match to win the title. It can happen.

Sounds like Cilic played very well to me.

Some comments in this thread that Federer wasn't so great (at least in parts). What about 67 winners to 24 unforced errors? Was it as high quality as that looks? Or was it just high because players were going to the net a lot?

I unfortunately didn't see any of it due to being in a very long meeting that pretty much coincided with the entire match. Sounds like the highlights might be worth a look though.

HB : three things I'd say, FWIW :

1. It was a good quality match in parts

2. Cilic did play well. This was definitely no choke in any conventional sense. Was mentally strong in saving a lot of crucial BP's (though obviously not quite enough)

3. Federer was far from his halcyon Wimbledon days ; but he dug very deep and used all his battle experience in that last 30 mins (whilst still guilty of lots of UE's too)

Hadn't heard those post-match comments from him ..... interesting stuff.

Federer wasn't poor at all. I think his fans here, caught up in the nervy match, were exaggerating how poorly he was playing. You don't beat Cilic who has been in good form through the tournament if you were THAT poor.

JJeep. Have to disagree with you. Cilic SHOULD have won. Fed two sets down and 3-3, 0-40 was the time for Cilic to put his foot down.
If he'd played well for about two minutes longer this would have been a straight sets win.
Henman said that Cilic faced a number of second serves on the big points but couldn't get them into play. Given Fed's lack of matches/fitness and given the state of the match (two sets down, MPs down) this must rate as one of his best GS wins.

Welp, Fed got lucky that Cilic lost his composure at the end.

On another note though, loving the salt from mthierry in this thread

mthierry wrote:Federer wasn't poor at all. I think his fans here, caught up in the nervy match, were exaggerating how poorly he was playing. You don't beat Cilic who has been in good form through the tournament if you were THAT  poor.

On the pint that mattered he did play badly

Not sure how many of the match points were a Fed second serve that he did not get close to even getting in

there were mis hits on easy shots (from both)

Fed will improve, unfortunately :-) but both players suffered the - how small is this court - on key points

I agree - Cilic should have won - as a former Slam winner he should have taken his chances and not have let Federer escape either the 3rd or 4th sets.  Once Fed emerged blinking into the 5th set he outplayed Cilic, but it was earlier on that Cilic let himself down.

Murray going ok - but only after he offered up 3 break back points.  Does he ever do it the easy way?

Murray not clicking quite yet either

Is it none of them used to the big yellow shinny thing in the sky :-)

barrystar wrote:I agree - Cilic should have won - as a former Slam winner he should have taken his chances and not have let Federer escape either the 3rd or 4th sets.  .................

............................

In theory, yes, he should have done, it's a fair point. Should have. Could have.

But then again, maybe when it came to the nervy crunch, it was all about who has the better Slam record & overall experience to draw upon.


Other than his impressive USO title run, Cilic has made just two SF's across ALL the Slams in TEN years of competing. Don't think we need to trot out the comparative Federer stats ........

JWT doing well. Could get interesting if he takes the opener.

1st set tsonga it looks
Terrible tie break from andy

Murray rolling his forehand a bit too much for my liking

No! 6-6. NOT JUST YET

Too good a serve

Murray senior loses his doubles QF 10-8 in the fifth.

@lags72 - I am well aware of Fed's greater experience in big matches and agree that it helped pull him through, but my point was that Cilic will be looking back with regret at missing opportunities he really should have taken

Tsonga playing well now.

Tsonga is on Fiyah. If he wins this Murray is in a fight

WHAT A RUN.

Some absolute magic in the end deciding that tiebreak

temporary21 wrote:1st set tsonga it looks
Terrible tie break from andy

yea of little faith

(Squeaky bum time)

Yes, from 2 sets to love up, Cilic was favourite! But at that point there was only one break of serve and Fed had had break points in more games than Cilic. It was that tight. My point was he wasn't ahead I didn't think in terms of level of play. It was at that point at 3 all in the third and 0-40 that I thought Fed woke up. The level of play up to that point was distinctly average. But he got better as the day went on.

Yes he faced second serves..but did you see the second serves? He was serving second serve aces. Hitting lines at 110mph on second serve. It was incredible. Yes, he perhaps should have done better on a few. But how many break points did Fed duff into the net?

It wasn't high quality from either player. It was incredibly close throughout. When a slight opportunity presented itself to win the match...Fed ultimately had the wherewithal to walk through the door. Cilic didn't.

barrystar -. Oh, sure, agreed. Cilic will have huge misgivings and will lose a lot of sleep after this one. Plus - despite his obvious natural talents - it could be that such chances won't come around too often for him ; especially given his pattern of inconsistency and (I feel) under-achievement in overall career terms.

Impressive battling stuff from Andy

Great tiebreak with both players playing well, and some good points, worth a look this evening for those of you that didn't catch it live. Difference though Murray can play at a high quality level with almost no errors even under pressure.

But...some really loud cheering of blatant errors from his opponent 2-3 times. Is he doing it deliberately to try and wind people up, or does he just do it without thinking? I don't see any other top players doing it so much.

Its berdy in the semi by te by

Tough to say Hb
Murray has a different mindset to most. Hes more abrasive than most
He often feels hes extracted an error from his opponent through a wizard return or pressure otherwise.
Maybe thats why, he celebrating earning it

Wonder how much spirit JWT has left for this ....

Federer's win took him to 1080 official match victories. Nine ahead of Lendl, but still quite some way short of the longstanding Connors record at 1256. Doubt Fed will surpass it (but then I didn't expect him to come back from 0-2 sets v Cilic .....)

Andy Murray broken in his second service game of the third set after facing break points in his previous service game. Andy Murray's intensity level has dropped significantly. Tsonga has recovered from the disappointment and intensity of the first set but finds himself two sets down. He has just kept himself busy in the third set and has taken the opportunity Murray has given him with Murrays own loss of intensity.

These new Adidas men's shirts look the business I must say.

this is going 4. Tsonga looks fairly gassed though. Not sure if he can win two more

I'm not sure Murray is thinking that "Tsonga looks fairly gassed"

Perhaps you should tell him .....!

He sounds gassed if you're listening on the radio.....

Aut0Gr4ph wrote:He sounds gassed if you're listening on the radio.....

There's real danger here. Murray has been strangely flat and insipid since winning the 2nd set. Needs to fire up and, if that involves barking like a dog, well so be it.

Maybe Cilic is the only person in the draw he feared and suddenly feeling the pressure now he's out.

Can you wrap things up before the Wales game, please guys ....

Aut0Gr4ph wrote:Maybe Cilic is the only person in the draw he feared and suddenly feeling the pressure now he's out.

Did he find out that Cilic was out in the third set then?

3 Much slower serves from tsonga and its 0-40

Well, it was a joke but, to be honest, I don't think he's looked right all match. 1st set was won by sheer force of will and Tsonga gave away the 2nd with a big mental letdown. Throughout the match Murray's FH has looked stilted and he just seems on edge. I do think the unexpected delay to the start may have been a factor, as Murray does seem sensitive to that sort of thing.

Theres the break
Can Murray pull himself together for two more holds...

Dont we always say Murray has a dodgy match every slam?

Tsonga totalling bossing the 2nd serve.

Think that was long.

Oh dear.. no he cant

It was.

no first serves. Paying the price

Great 2nd serve to get back to deuce.

clever second serve. Saw tsonga move to the bh side

Tsonga not going away.

Both players have lost intensity from the first set, though Murray was able to keep it going to run through the second set.  From the third set Murray's level dropped significantly and Tsonga won it by playing solid.  In the fourth set Tsonga's level has dropped a little more.

This is not like a Djokovic who can maintain his intensity better throughout a long match.

aye aye aye...