10SBALLS SHARES RICKY’S PICKS FOR THE WIMBLEDON QUARTERFINALS: ROGER FEDERER VS. MARIN CILIC AND MILOS RAONIC VS. SAM QUERREY

Written by: Staff on 4th July 2016

10SBALLS SHARES RICKY'S PICKS FOR THE WIMBLEDON QUARTERFINALS: ROGER FEDERER VS. MARIN CILIC AND MILOS RAONIC VS. SAM QUERREY

epa05404110 Milos Raonic of Canada returns to Jack Sock of the US in their third round match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 02 July 2016. EPA/HANNAH MCKAY EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO COMMERCIAL SALES |

By Ricky Dimon

With Novak Djokovic out, is the door open at Wimbledon for Roger Federer? At the moment Djokovic’s exit is not a factor for Federer, but if the Swiss wins his next match against Marin Cilic, he would face either Milos Raonic or Sam Querrey instead of Djokovic in the semifinals. Those two quarterfinal clashes are part of Wednesday’s schedule at the All-England Club.

Ricky previews the action and makes his predictions.

(3) Roger Federer vs. (9) Marin Cilic

Roger Federer of Switzerland serves to Steve Johnson of the US in their fourth round match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 04 July 2016. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

Federer and Cilic will be facing each other for the first time since their memorably one-sided 2014 U.S. Open semifinal. Cilic toppled Federer 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 at Flushing Meadows, propelling him to his first Grand Slam title. Still, Federer sports a comfortable 5-1 lead in the head-to-head series having won all of their previous encounters from the Paris Masters in 2008 through the Rogers Cup in the summer of 2014. The two veterans have never met on grass.

“That was definitely one of my best matches in the career,” Cilic said of the U.S. Open surprise. “You know, we haven’t played since then. That could be another good thing for me that I can just look back at that match and know what things I was doing really well.”

Although neither player is by any means a grass-court specialist, the surface and the setting should make for a particularly high-quality tilt. Federer, of course, is a seven-time champion of this tournament and an eighth title looks especially in play now that Djokovic is gone. The 34-year-old suffered semifinal losses in Stuttgart and Halle, but he has had things in cruise control this fortnight with straight-set wins over Guido Pella, Marcus Willis, Daniel Evans, and Steve Johnson.

Cilic has now advanced to the last eight at Wimbledon three straight times–even in 2015, when his overall year was a poor one by his lofty standards. The world No. 13 eased past Brian Baker, Sergiy Stakhovsky, and Lukas Lacko before benefiting from a second-set retirement courtesy of Kei Nishikori in round four. Although 2016 has been a struggle for Cilic, Queen’s Club may have been a harbinger of things to come at the All-England Club because he earned three impressive wins there before pushing Andy Murray to three sets in the semifinals.

“I practiced with him when I arrived here at Wimbledon,” Federer said of Cilic. “He was playing great; 1‑2, 1‑2, 1‑2, serving, boom, forehand, serving, boom, backhand. He’s very aggressive. He blew me off the court at the U.S. Open. I know what I’m getting into. He’s really tough to play…. I’ve never seen him serve that consistently well (as he did in New York). He can clearly do it here at Wimbledon, too.”

Cilic, however, has never recaptured the same form that resulted in by far the most important moments of his career two summers ago. Furthermore, Federer–as always–has improved with each passing round and he called his showing against Johnson “by far my best match.” That could be bad news for Cilic.

Pick: Federer in 4

(28) Sam Querrey vs. (6) Milos Raonic

Sam Querrey of the US scores against Novak Djokovic of Serbia in their third round match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 02 July 2016. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

Rarely does John Isner fail to be the last American man left in a Grand Slam. But both Querrey and Steve Johnson outlasted him at Wimbledon and now it is Querrey who is the lone flag-bearer. Before the world No. 41 stunned Djokovic on Saturday, his Wimbledon campaign came dangerously close to not even getting started. Querrey dropped his first two sets of the tournament but clawed back to beat Lukas Rosol 6-7(6), 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-2, 12-10 in the first round. He then thrashed Thomaz Bellucci, took down Djokovic 7-6(6), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(5), and avenged a recent ‘s-Hertogenbosch setback against Nicolas Mahut by beating the Frenchman 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-4 on manic Monday.

Next up for Querrey is Raonic, whom he leads 2-1 in the head-to-head series. They also squared off at Wimbledon four seasons ago, when Querrey got the job done 6-7(3), 7-6(7), 7-6(8), 6-4 in a second-round affair. Wednesday will mark their first encounter since early in 2013 at the now-defunct San Jose event, where Raonic prevailed 6-4, 6-2. The Canadian has also needed a comeback from two sets down in order to reach the quarters at Wimbledon. Following routine defeats of Pablo Carreno Busta, Andreas Seppi, and Jack Sock, Raonic overcame David Goffin 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

A former Wimbledon semifinalist (2014) who also advanced that far at this year’s Australian Open, Raonic has far more experience than Querrey at his stage of slams. In fact, this is the American’s first trip to a slam quarterfinal and he had previously been past the third round only three times. Querrey’s improbable run will likely come to an end at the hand’s of Raonic’s massive serve.

Pick: Raonic in 4