Roger Federer neutralized the big serve of Ivo Karlovic in a straight set victory to advance to his 21st consecutive grand slam semifinal. Federer broke Karlovic twice in the match and played really well on his serve. With Federer able to get some more serves in play, Karlovic had no chance of keeping up with Federer in rallies. Andy Murray also won in straight sets over Juan Carlos Ferrero. The first set was tight but Murray was able to break late to win the set. From there, it was Murray who imposed his will on Ferrero by constantly playing deep into the Spaniard's service games. Tommy Haas continued to play great tennis today with a four set victory over Novak Djokovic. The match was tightly contested but Haas served extremely well to keep the Serb on his heels. After losing the first two sets, Djokovic came back to win the third but was not able to keep up the momentum in the fourth set.
The best match of the day came when Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt stepped onto Court 1. Hewitt came off to a slow start in the first two games and quickly saw himself down a break. Roddick cruised on his serve and won the first set 6-3. Hewitt and Roddick split the next two sets in tiebreaks with Hewitt winning the second set breaker 12-10. Down two sets to one, Hewitt broke Roddick late in the fourth and consolidated his break by holding to even the match up. In the fifth set, both players had opportunities to break serve but big serving and clutch play kept the match on serve. At 4-4 in the last set, Roddick broke Hewitt with a forehand winner down the line. He then went on to serve out the match to take the fifth set 6-4.
The match was very well played by both players and was truly a test of their mental game and fitness. Roddick really showed how much his fitness has improved over the past several months. Roddick served a career best, 42 aces. On Friday, Roger Federer will play Tommy Haas and Andy Murray will go up against Andy Roddick.
As for my pre-Wimbledon semifinal predictions, I was 4 for 4. Not bad huh?
picture courtesy of wimbledon.org
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