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All of Great Britain is happy. Their adopted son (Murray hails from Scotland, but the English claim him as one of their own), #2 Andy Murray will play in the men’s Wimbledon final on Sunday. His opponent, world #1 Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic faced off against #8 J. Del Potro in today’s first semifinal and it was a gem. Djokovic won the first set, 7 – 5, dropped the second, 4 – 6, and then finished up by taking the third set in a tie break, 7 – 6 and the fourth set, 6 – 4. It was a wonderfully entertaining match, hard fought and it was painful to watch one of these guys have to lose. But that is sports! Del Potro, playing with a heavily wrapped hyperentended knee suffered earlier in the tournament, gave it is all. He was extremely animated and the crowd seemed to be soundly in his corner. But Djokovic is #1 for a reason, he actually out-aced Del Potro, 22 -4 which was shocking in and of itself. Partially responsible for that statistic is the amazing return game Djokovic possess, perhaps the best in the game. The match lasted four hours and 43 minutes, the longest semifinal in Wimbledon history. When all was said and done, Djokovic was the last man standing and moves on to the final on Sunday.
Awaiting him will be #2 Andy Murray. He was playing the young Polish sensation, Jerzy Janowicz (ranked 24th in the world). I was pulling for Jerzy but the moment was perhaps a bit too big for him at this stage. His serve lacked some of the speed and oomph it has had throughout the tournament and Murray with his excellent return game took advantage. Janowicz took the first set in a tie break, 7 – 6. Ah, was there hope for an upset? Nope. Murray took the next two sets, 6 – 4, 6 – 4. With nighttime approaching (some question here as there seemed to be plenty of daylight ahead), they took a break to close the roof and one could envision Murray remembering last year’s final match against the great Roger Federer. The roof closed and Federer closed him out. This was not to be the case, Murray took the fourth and deciding set, 6 – 3, breaking Jerzy early in the fourth set and all of England is celebrating. The match up we have expected, especially since the shocking early exits of both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, will take place on Sunday, 9:00 am EST on ESPN. So prediction…I think Djokovic wins. But we shall see…Andy was oh, so close last year, and he did go on to win both the Olympic gold and then the US Open.
Tomorrow morning at 9:00 am EST on ESPN the surprising women’s final: 23 S. Lisicki vs. M. Bartoli. Also on the docket, the Bryan brothers of the USA will play in the doubles final. If they win, they will hold all four Grand Slam titles in 2013 in doubles. It has never been done before. You go Bryan boys!
Until tomorrow…
