10SBALLS SHARES RICKY’S TENNIS PREVIEW AND PICKS FOR THE WIMBLEDON MEN’S SEMIFINALS: THE GREATEST ROGER FEDERER VS. YOUNG GUN MILOS RAONIC, WHILE ANDY MURRAY VS. TOMAS BERDYCH “THE WATCHMAN”

Written by: Staff on 7th July 2016

10SBALLS SHARES RICKY'S TENNIS PREVIEW AND PICKS FOR THE WIMBLEDON MEN'S SEMIFINALS: THE GREATEST ROGER FEDERER VS. YOUNG GUN MILOS RAONIC, WHILE ANDY MURRAY VS. TOMAS BERDYCH "THE WATCHMAN"

epa05410609 Milos Raonic of Canada returns to Sam Querrey of the US in their quarter final match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 06 July 2016. EPA/GERRY PENNY EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO COMMERCIAL SALES |

By Ricky Dimon

After an epic quarterfinal Wednesday on Centre Court, what will semifinal Friday do for an encore? It features fan favorites Roger Federer and Andy Murray, who survived respective five-setters in the previous round. Federer is going up against Milos Raonic, while Murray will battle Tomas Berdych for a place in the title match.

Ricky previews the action and makes his predictions.

(6) Milos Raonic vs. (3) Roger Federer

Federer and Raonic will be colliding for the 12th time in their careers. The head-to-head series 9-2 in favor of Federer, including 2-0 on grass and 1-0 at Wimbledon. They also met in the semifinals at the All-England Club in 2014, when the Swiss coasted 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Raonic had been an especially hopeless 1-9 against Federer before getting the job done 6-4, 6-4 early this year to capture the Brisbane title.

The first five months of 2016 were nothing short of a disaster for the world No. 3, but he is finally armed with a clean bill of health and appears to be heating up at just the right time. On the heels of unspectacular semifinal performances in Stuttgart and Halle, Federer now finds himself in the Wimbledon semifinals for the 11th time in his illustrious career. The seven-time title winner cruised past Guido Pella, Marcus Willis, Daniel Evans, and Steve Johnson before staging an epic comeback against Marin Cilic that saw him save three match points on the way to a 6-7(4), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(9), 6-3 victory.

Roger Federer of Switzerland returns to Marin Cilic of Croatia in their quarter final match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 06 July 2016. EPA/HANNAH MCKAY

“I prefer to be here than booking a jet,” Federer quipped. “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 in the fourth round on Monday, when he overcame David Goffin 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. That was preceded by much more routine wins over Pablo Carreno Busta, Andreas Seppi, and Jack Sock, and it was followed by a 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 quarterfinal defeat of Sam Querrey.

“I look forward to it a lot,” Raonic said of the semis. “(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.”

The Canadian should be more competitive than he was at this stage two seasons ago, but Federer is 10-0 lifetime in the Wimbledon semifinals and that is a record that cannot be discounted even though much of it was compiled during the prime of his career. The Swiss is likely to make it 11-0 by earning another win over an opponent whom he has mostly owned.

Pick: Federer in 4

(10) Tomas Berdych vs. (2) Andy Murray

Murray and Berdych will be facing each other for the 15th time in their careers on Friday. Although Murray owns just a slim 8-6 advantage in the head-to-head series, it has been far less competitive of late. The world No. 2 has reeled off four victories in a row and he is a perfect 9-0 in sets without needing a single tiebreaker since Berdych took a contentious opening set of their 2015 Australian Open semifinal meeting. They most recently squared off earlier this year on the clay courts of Madrid, where Murray rolled 6-3, 6-2.

Until a relatively unexpected quarterfinal appearance at the French Open, the clay-court swing was a disastrous one for Berdych. The world No. 9 got double-bageled by David Goffin in Rome, but his resurgence at Roland Garros apparently restored confidence in his game. Berdych is now into a sixth major semifinal (second at Wimbledon) with victories over Ivan Dodig, Benjamin Becker, Alexander Zverev, Jiri Vesely, and Lucas Pouille.

Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic returns to Lucas Pouille of France in their quarter final match during the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 06 July 2016. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA

“Definitely the way I’m playing (I can give him trouble),” the Czech insisted. “You know, try to push him as hard as I can, being aggressive, not giving him the time to create the game.”

“Obviously he’s a big guy who serves well,” Murray assessed. “When he’s dictating the points, he hits a big, big ball. He’s a powerful guy. Ideally, I don’t want to have him dictating all of the points because then I’ll be doing a lot of running.”

All four semifinalists have survived five-setters during this event. While Berdych’s scare came against Vesely in round four, Murray ran into trouble from completely out of nowhere in the quarters. The Scot won his first 14 sets of this fortnight, crushing Liam Broady, Yen-Hsun Lu, John Millman, and Nick Kyrgios before surging to a big lead over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday. Tsonga mounted a charge, but Murray held on for a 7-6(10), 6-1, 3-6, 4-6, 6-1 triumph. Since finishing runner-up to Novak Djokovic on the red dirt of Paris, Murray is a perfect 10-0 on grass with a title at Queen’s Club under his belt.

Although Berdych has recovered nicely from his humiliation at the hands of Goffin, his best wins since the start of April have come against a slumping David Ferrer. The No. 10 seed has not done enough recently to suggest Murray’s recent domination in the head-to-head series will suddenly come to an end.

Pick: Murray in 3

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: 10sballs.com, All England Club, Andy Murray, Grass tennis, milos raonic, Ricky Dimon, Roger Federer, Tennis News, The Championships, Tomas Berdych, Wimbledon 2016

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