Berdych out to recapture 2010 form in semi-final

Tomas Berdych is hoping that history repeats itself at Wimbledon today when he meets Roger Federer for a place in Sunday’s final.

The Czech’s only appearance in a grand slam final came in 2010 at Wimbledon when he defeated Federer in the quarter-finals and then Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals.

He fell short against Rafael Nadal in the final, but hopes the fact that he got past Djokovic on Wednesday, after the Serbian retired trailing 7-6, 2-0, is a positive sign for beating Federer.

“It’s hard to compare,” Berdych, 31, said. “I have so much more experience from that time and everything, you can’t really compare those things.

“The only thing that can be funny is that in 2010 I beat Roger and then Novak.

“This year I beat Novak, now I’m playing Roger, so it would be great. Rafa is not there any more. Let’s see. It’s going to be interesting.”

Federer has won his last seven meetings with Berdych, with his last defeat to the world No 15 coming at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in 2013.

This will be their third meeting at Wimbledon, with Federer triumphant in 2006 and then Berdych winning when they met in 2010.

In the other semi-final today, Croatian Marin Cilic goes up against Sam Querrey, the conqueror of world No 1 Andy Murray.

Cilic looks the most likely player on paper left in the draw to trouble Federer, having taken the Swiss player to five sets and squandered two match points in their quarter-final encounter last year.

The seventh seed is also the only other major champion left in the draw and Cilic says his 2014 US Open triumph, where he beat Federer in the semi-finals, gives him the belief he can do it again.

“I would say winning the US Open has helped me for all these grand slams I have played so far, and I believe the rest of my career,” Cilic said.

“Preparation-wise I believe in my own abilities. I believe when coming at these stages of the tournament, I’m going to still be able to play great tennis.

“I know I have it in me that I can win. That’s extremely important.”

Querrey, the world No 28, is through to his first grand slam semi-final in 43 attempts and concedes that he had not expected to go so far in the competition.

The American said his parents might fly over for his showdown with Cilic although he appeared reluctant to upset his “mojo” he has built up in his run to the last four.

“They were actually in Europe for a couple of weeks and flew home a week before the tournament started. But they might come back now,” Querrey said.

“Sometimes you don’t want to ruin the mojo, whatever’s going on. But I think they’re going to come out for the next one.”