In the fairy-tale story of Wimbledon 2015, the defending
champion Novak Djokovic slayed another giant challenger who threatened to steel
his cherished crown.
On Tuesday Djokovic fended off the challenge from 6ft 8
South African Kevin Anderson after the pair resumed their five set epic which
had been carried over from Monday’s fourth round. Yesterday savvy Serb
triumphed again as he chopped 6ft 6 Croatian Marin Cilic down to size to stomp
into Friday’s semi-final.
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| Novak Djokovic celebrates reaching the semi final |
There he will face France’s Richard Gasquet who defeated a
familiar foe Stanislas Wawrinka in a five set marathon on court number one.
That may come as a slight relief to Djokovic who was on the receiving end of
Wawrinka’s extreme firepower on the clay at Roland Garros a few weeks ago, when
the Swiss claimed his first French Open title to deny Djokovic the
sensation.
But this is a new tournament, a new surface and after
escaping the clutches of Anderson, where he recovered from two sets down,
Djokovic looks at home again on the grass at SW19.
He dismantled the towering figure of Cilic with relative
ease and minimum fuss breaking the Croatian’s serve once in each set. In
contrast Djokovic didn’t even face a break point during his 6-4 6-4 6-4 victory
which fell 10 minutes short of the 2 hour mark.
"It was a very solid performance after a tough five-set
match against Kevin in the fourth round" said Djokovic after the match “I
didn't know how my body was going to feel. I was hoping I was going to play
well and that's what I did”
"The top players are expected to reach the final stages
of these competitions, but still I'm happy to make my way through. Of course I
try not to take it for granted."
The Serb certainly didn’t hang around as he broke the Cilic
serve in the third game of the match and momentum rarely looked like changing
hands. Cilic did push Djokovic all the way to five sets at this stage last year
and has since won his maiden Grand Slam at the US Open back in September;
however this didn’t have the feel of a match which was being contested between
two major champions.
Cilic isn’t a bad player nor did he cover himself in shame,
it takes a tremendous effort to win one of tennis’ four big events as he did
last year and under the guidance of his coach, compatriot and former Wimbledon
winner Goran Ivanisevic, his best may still be yet to come.
However before this match the 12-0 head to head record in
favour of Djokovic was daunting and it didn’t take long to see why it was so
one sided. Djokovic is renowned as the best returner in the game right now and
he regularly neutralised the Croatian’s powerful first serve before outmanoeuvring
he from the baseline.
Ivanisevic would have told his pupil to be aggressive and
attack Djokovic at every opportunity, but in truth Cilic rarely had the chance
as the Serb made 72% of his first serves which kept him ahead in the rallies.
The Croatian did save three set points when Djokovic was
serving for the first set before losing the forth, he then held serve until 4-4
in the second before the Serb’s relentless pressure finally told.
When Cilic found the target with his first serve he won the
point 80% of the time, yet on his second delivery that dropped to 50% as
Djokovic unsurprisingly made him pay and exceled in the longer exchanges.
Cilic needed to take risks but unfortunately for him they
didn’t pay off, he sent a loose forehand long mid-way through the third set to
hand Djokovic his third break of the match, which the top seed concluded a few
minutes later.
Earlier in the day both Andy Murray and Roger Federer had
also made it through to the last four, as they both prevailed in straight sets
to set up a meeting in the other semi-final. If Wawrinka had joined them it
would have been the first time since 1995 that the top four seeds had all reached
the semi-final stage. Another giant may have fallen but the real big three
still remain.
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