After a surprisingly one sided day of semi-finals on the ladies side of the draw at Wimbledon Tennis on Thursday it is the turn of the men to take centre stage on Friday as they decide who will play out the final on Centre Court on Sunday.
All eyes will be on Roger Federer and Andy Murray to see if they can set up a rematch in Sunday’s final which would be a fitting way to draw the tournament to a conclusion but Milos Raonic and Tomas Berdych will hope to have something to say about that.
Thursday Recap
Although we didn’t have a bet on Thursday we didn’t mind the one-sided nature of the day as our outright pick in the ladies draw Angelique Kerber flew into the final so she has already secured a place and has set up a repeat of the Australian Open final with Serena Williams on Saturday.
Serena Williams need just over 40 minutes to see off the challenge for the want of a better word of Elena Vesnina who was clearly struck by nerves and tension and ran into the eye of the storm that was the legend at her very best.
Milos Raonic vs Roger Federer
Can Roger Federer tame another heavy server? Can Milos Raonic keep up his excellent form of the grass court season? These are both relevant questions as is what state will Federer be in after that epic with Marin Cilic on Wednesday? He is getting no younger and matches like that have a lasting effect. Indeed the last time he came from 2-0 down in sets he lost in the very next round to a huge server at the US Open.
These two met in the semi-final two years ago when Federer won in straight sets with each one finishing 6-4 but Raonic is a much better player now and there are question marks over whether Federer is as good. In fact you would have to say the evidence suggests he isn’t so this should be much closer than that one at the very least.
Raonic is serving really well in this tournament and he looks a lot more comfortable at the net than ever before too and I think he is worth a small punt to win this match. Marin Cilic has Federer beaten in the previous round but couldn’t quite get the job done. The way Raonic is moving I think he will get it done.
Tomas Berdych vs Andy Murray
Can Andy Murray make it back to the Wimbledon final once again? He is a heavy favourite to do so but he’ll know that Tomas Berdych is no mug. Murray now leads 8-6 in their head to head having won the last four matches but he did trail 6-4 at one point and the Czech often gives him some problems early on when they meet.
I think Murray will win this match but I’m already on him outright so I’m not going to chance any handicaps especially after he went the full five sets the other night. Hopefully he comes through to the final where he will be a warm favourite to land our outright punt.
Best of the Rest
It is ladies doubles semi-final day on Court One while the mixed doubles continues to catch up around that but as I mentioned over the last two days the strenuous schedule to catch up has taken its toll and we’re getting surprising results as seen with Martina Hingis going out of both the ladies and mixed doubles on Thursday. I’ll continue to sit the doubles out.
Wimbledon Tennis Semi-final Tips
WON – Back M.Raonic to beat R.Federer for a 3/10 stake at 2.60 with Boylesports
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