After a week of stops and starts because of the rain the Aegon Championships have finally got back on schedule which means that on Saturday the two semi-finals will be played on Centre Court at Queens ahead of the final on Sunday.
There was guaranteed to be a British interest in the semis and it comes in the form of Andy Murray. He is joined by the former champion Marin Cilic who he will face in the last four. The other semi sees Milos Raonic taking on Bernard Tomic with both looking to make their first Queens final.
Andy Murray vs Marin Cilic
This will be the 13th meeting between the two former winners of this event. Murray actually beat Cilic in the final here in 2013 so they will know each other well. Murray goes into this match leading 10-2 on the overall record and this is generally a match he does pretty well in but that is no surprise as a great returner.
The concern would be that Murray hasn’t looked at his best this week. He could easily have dropped a set against Nicolas Mahut in the first round and then did drop a set against Kyle Edmund in the quarter final so there is a vulnerability there.
Marin Cilic also dropped a set in the quarter final to Steve Johnson but came through pretty comfortably in the end. He hasn’t served as well as he would have liked in this tournament yet though averaging less than 60% of first serves in and that will need to go over the 60% mark if he’s to win this.
That said I still think this will be a fairly close semi-final. When they met in that final here three years ago it went three sets and I fancy this one could too. I don’t think Cilic is ever going to be out of things on Murray’s serve although his own will regularly be under pressure. If it doesn’t go three sets I think there will be a tight set along the way so over 22.5 games looks good to me here.
Milos Raonic vs Bernard Tomic
The second semi-final sees Milos Raonic taking on the man who has almost been forgotten this week in Bernard Tomic. Tomic has come through the draw quite nicely but faces his toughest test here against a Raonic who always had the game for grass but who seems to have come on a little bit even this soon under John McEnroe.
I think Raonic will win this match but we’re never going to get much value on him these days with the McEnroe link up in full swing and we’re not getting any here so I’ll sit back and watch this one rather than bet on it.
Tips
WON – Back A.Murray vs M.Cilic – Over 22.5 games for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with Betfred
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