Pain elbows Novak to exit
THREE-TIME Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic’s painful year continued as he retired with an elbow injury during his quarter-final against Czech Tomas Berdych yesterday.
The second seed had lost the opening set and was down a break in the second when he walked to the net and shook his opponent’s hand.
The retirement, with the score at 7-6(2) 2-0, came shortly after the 30-year-old Serb called a medical timeout.
Djokovic said his right elbow had been bothering him for over a year and a half and that he had been feeling pain from the beginning of the tournament.
“The intensity and the level of pain was not decreasing. It was only increasing as the days went by,” he said. “Unfortunately, today was the worst day.
“It’s unfortunate that I had to finish Wimbledon, a grand slam, this way,” he added. “I mean, if someone feels bad about it, it’s me. But, you know, I tried.”
He also said the postponement of his last16 match against Adrian Mannarino, which was pushed a day to Tuesday because of the marathon five-setter in which Gilles Muller beat Rafael Nadal, might have played a role.
“Probably the fact that I played yesterday, kind of days adding up, as I’ve said before, it wasn’t helping at all,” he said.
The retirement is a another blow for the former world No 1, who has surrendered his Australian and French Open titles this year and slipped to fourth in the world.
The result means Berdych, 31, has reached the semi-finals for the second year running. The Czech has also broken a streak of 12 losses against his tormentor-in-chief Djokovic, whom he had previously only beaten twice in 27 matches.
Gilles Muller’s unlikely Wimbledon run came to an end when he was beaten in five sets by Croatian Marin Cilic.
Cilic, who triumphed 3-6 7-6(6) 7-5 5-7 6-1, will now face Sam Querrey in the semi-finals after the American upset home favourite Andy Murray.
The 34-year-old Muller was an unexpected presence in the last eight after he pulled off a surprise, five-set win over Rafa Nadal in the fourth round.
A day off ensured decent recovery time from the nearly five-hour battle with Nadal, which included a fifth set that lasted over two hours.
And Muller, the journeyman who had not even won a regular ATP Tour event until this year, succeeded in carrying his inspired form against the Spaniard into this last eight contest.
Muller broke in the seventh game with a powerful drive down the line, shouting out his delight as he clearly sensed another upset could be on the agenda.
He broke again to win the set when Cilic went wide with a return and his small but noisy contingent of supporters from his Luxembourg homeland roared their delight.
Cilic was not rattled though and he went into the second set tie-break looking strong, taking advantage of an ill-timed double-fault from Muller at 6-6, securing set point with a fantastic cross-court winner.
The third set was another tight affair and again it was an unforced error from Muller which gave Cilic the upper hand. Serving to stay in the set, Muller was broken to love, the final point a frustrating volley into the net.
The clever serve-and-volley play and the icecool demeanour that put paid to Nadal’s hopes, had gone but Muller was not ready to leave for his home in Leudelange just yet.
Cilic’s serve was firing dangerously but Muller held on and then struck to go 6-5 up, breaking with a fine cross-court winner and uncharacteristically dancing across to his chair.
He regained his composure quickly and calmly served out for the set but his revival was short-lived.
Cilic broke Muller’s first service in the deciding set and the resistance crumbled, the Croat charging through the games to win the final set 6-1.
Meanwhile Roger Federer says the key to winning majors is making sure his average is as high as possible – every round.
There is nothing average about Federer, though, as he proved again yesterday by turning his 100th Wimbledon match into an exhibition of his magic, outclassing Milos Raonic 6-4 6-2 7-6(4) to reach the semi-finals for a record 12th time.
The Swiss maestro, 36 next month, played his best tennis of the tournament to dismantle the big-serving Canadian – avenging last year’s semi-final defeat in stunning fashion.
With defending champion Andy Murray losing earlier on Centre Court to Sam Querrey and Djokovic retiring injured, Federer is now overwhelming favourite to become the first man to win the title eight times.
“I can’t believe it’s 100 matches, it’s a lot but I’m very happy my body has kept me going all these years,” said Federer who will face Berdych in Friday’s semi-finals. “You have to make sure you average is as high as possible every day and I think I’m doing a great job this week.”
Raonic might have had the 224km/h serve in his locker, but Federer owns a magic wand that he used to make the world’s sixth best player look like a lumbering also-ran.
It was hard not feel sorry for Raonic at times.
Usually when a player is taking the kind of beating Federer was handing out on a sunlit Centre Court, the crowd throw their weight behind the underdog. That rule does not apply when it is Federer, king of Wimbledon, inflicting the punishment in the silky manner only the 18-time grand slam champion is capable of.