Andy Murray of Britain reacts after his win over Fernando Verdasco of Spain in their men\u2019s quarter-final match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London, yesterday. Murray won 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5. BOTTOM: Serbia\u2019s Novak Djokovic returns to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. Djokovic won 7-6 (7\/5), 6-4, 6-3.<\/p>\n
LONDON: Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray remain on course for a Wimbledon final showdown after the top two seeds took contrasting routes into the last four yesterday.<\/p>\n
Djokovic will face Juan Martin del Potro for a place in Sunday\u2019s final as the world number one clinched his 13th consecutive Grand Slam last four spot with a 7-6 (7\/5), 6-4, 6-3 victory over Tomas Berdych.<\/p>\n
The 2011 champion is yet to drop a set in his five matches at this year\u2019s tournament and is now just two wins away from lifting the All England Club trophy for the second time.<\/p>\n
Del Potro beat Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (7\/5) after surviving a nasty fall in the opening game, which left the Argentine eighth seed needing several minutes of treatment on a left knee already heavily bandaged.<\/p>\n
In the other half of the draw, Murray showed impressive resolve as the world number two battled back from two sets down to defeat unseeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5. Murray, aiming to become the first British man to win the Wimbledon singles title since Fred Perry in 1936, will play Polish 24th seed Jerzy Janowicz for a place in the final for a second successive year.<\/p>\n
Janowicz defeated compatriot Lukasz Kubot 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 to become Poland\u2019s first male Grand Slam semi-finalist.<\/p>\n
A day of high drama started with Djokovic avenging his 2010 Wimbledon semi-final defeat against Berdych.<\/p>\n
That was one of just two wins for the Czech seventh seed in their 15 meetings. And the losing streak always looked likely to continue once Djokovic took a tight first set in the tie-break on Court One. Djokovic, a six-time Grand Slam champion, recovered from 3-0 down in the second set and surged to victory in his 17th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a close match,\u201d Djokovic said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I have a commitment to go far in this tournament. I am playing some of my best tennis on grass even though it\u2019s not my preferred surface,\u201d<\/p>\n
Berdych added: \u201cI can play better than I played today. If you give him too much then it\u2019s a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Centre Court, Del Potro, 24, was clearly struggling to move at times, but he gritted his teeth through two hours and 16 minutes of gruelling action.<\/p>\n
It will be del Potro\u2019s first Grand Slam semi-final appearance since his breakthrough triumph at the US Open four years ago.<\/p>\n
Asked how close he was to pulling out, del Potro said: \u201cReally close because I felt a lot of pain in the beginning of the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI twisted my knee once again but the doctor gave me some magic pills so I could finish the match and I\u2019m so glad to go through.\u201d Ferrer revealed he had been struggling with an ankle injury before the match: \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to warm-up properly but it was fine during the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was more focused and aggressive, served really well and deserved to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murray, beaten by Roger Federer in last year\u2019s final, has now won his last 16 matches on grass and will appear in his fifth successive Wimbledon semi-final after bringing Centre Court to their feet in celebration of his epic comeback.<\/p>\n
Initially Murray, supported from the royal box by former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, looked a shadow of the player who swept through his first four matches without dropping a set.\b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andy Murray of Britain reacts after his win over Fernando Verdasco of Spain in their men\u2019s quarter-final match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, in London, yesterday. Murray won 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5. BOTTOM: Serbia\u2019s Novak Djokovic returns to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic. Djokovic won 7-6 (7\/5), 6-4, 6-3.<\/p>\n
LONDON: Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray remain on course for a Wimbledon final showdown after the top two seeds took contrasting routes into the last four yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":10296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}