Earning a second life at Wimbledon after coming back from two sets down against Marin Cilic in the quarters, Roger Federer will meet Milos Raonic on Friday. The winner will play either Andy Murray or Tomas Berdych in the final.
Roger Federer and Milos Raonic will be facing each other for the 12th time in their careers when they battle for a place in the Wimbledon title match on Friday.
Federer is dominating the head-to-head series 9-2, including 2-0 on grass and 1-0 at Wimbledon. They also squared off in the semifinals at the All-England Club two years ago, when the Swiss cruised 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Raonic had been an especially futile 1-9 against Federer before prevailing 6-4, 6-4 early this season to capture the Brisbane title.
The first five months of 2016 were nothing short of an injury-plagued disaster for the 34-year-old, but he appears to be heating up at just the right time. On the heels of unspectacular semifinal finishes in Stuttgart and Halle, Federer now finds himself in the Wimbledon semis for the 11th time in his illustrious career. The seven-time champion rolled over Guido Pella, Marcus Willis, Daniel Evans, and Steve Johnson before staging an epic comeback against Marin Cilic on Wednesday that featured three match-point saves en route to a 6-7(4), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(9), 6-3 triumph.
“I prefer to be here than booking a jet,” Federer said after his close call versus Cilic. “I’ll tell you that. For me, I’m very pleased…. Today was epic. (I’m) probably going to look back at this as being a great, great match that I played in my career, on Centre Court here at Wimbledon…. This is huge for me, my season, my career. I’m very, very happy. I think I’m playing good tennis, too.”
Raonic took his turn surviving the brink of defeat during fourth-round action on Monday, when he outlasted David Goffin 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. That was preceded by much more routine defeats of Pablo Carreno Busta, Andreas Seppi, and Jack Sock, and it was followed by a 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Sam Querrey.
“I look forward to it a lot,” Raonic assured. “(It’s) definitely a great opportunity. Two years have passed since I played him here in the semifinals. I’m happy that I have another shot at him…. Probably from the mental side, I’ll look at what I wouldn’t want to repeat from two years ago.”
With Federer two years older and Raonic much-improved, mentally tougher, and tactically sounder since that 2014 encounter, a much more competitive contest should be in the cards. But Federer is 10-0 lifetime in Wimbledon semifinal matches and that is a record that cannot be discounted even though much of it was compiled during the prime of his career. The world No. 3 is likely to make it 11-0 by scoring another win over an opponent whom he has mostly owned.
Pick: Federer in 4
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I’m so so proud of Roger for what he’s managed to accomplish in the tournament. IMO, he was quite stiff yesterday and that largely contributed to the DFs when you’d think he was going to win his service game easily. What scared me most however, was that fall. It wasn’t because his movement isn’t there yet (which is true). It looked like his legs just buckled at that point-quite literally. He was quite scared too by the looks of it, at how it happened.
I’m not a fan of Milos tbh, and I don’t expect him to do much in the final (in any case I’m rooting for Andy) but Mac obviously did a good job with him at the net in the limited time they’ve spent together.
Roger came to Wimbledon hoping to make the second week. He did much more than that and his match versus Cilic-with both the CC crowd and Henman Hill going crazy for him, will be a match to remember.