The day 8th of the Wimbledon was an epic line-up of world’s finest men’s singles player taking the Wimbledon courts in the bid to qualify for the quarter-finals. After the world no.1 seed going out from the tournament in what is thus far the greatest upset at Wimbledon, losing to the American in Sam Querry – the men’s draw has got wide open.
Roger Federer vs Steve Johnson
The first match of day 8 in the men’s draw was Roger Federer vs Steve Johnson (who beat Dimitrov in the last match). Johnson’s serve is a great asset to his game and that perhaps resulted in the upset of sorts in him beating Dimitrov, with the latter having beaten the 19th seed Simon from France in the match prior to facing Johnson.
Federer being the legend that he is; in spite of having back problems and not being at the peak of his game, the Swiss legend is still nevertheless posing many serious questions to his opponents and looks in fine touch to perhaps go all the way.
The Swiss raced to a 2-0 lead with a 6-2 6-3 win in the first 2 sets but the 3rd saw him getting his serve broken for the first time in the match, the break not penalizing his chance of winning the set as he came back and broke the American in the very next game – the set back on serve. At 6-5 with Johnson serving for the match, the pressure was inevitable for him to come back into the match and break from Federer seized him a place in the quarter-final with a 7-5 win in the 3rd.
Andy Murray vs Nick Kyrgios
Andy Murray vs Nick Kyrgios was the next match at the center court and it was expected to be a greatly entertaining encounter with the latter at just 21 years of age already making inroads in the world of tennis.
The home-boy in Murray was quick to get into his groove and started showing signs of an impeccable grass game, with Kyrgios looking visibly out of sync from set 1 – he was approaching the net frequently but Murray’s passing winners were finding no answers from Kyrgios’ racket.
The first set was the only respectable set for the Australian with a 7-5 loss as the last 2 sets were a pure Murray genius and it wouldn’t be wrong to say that after losing the 1st, Kyrgios lost the fight in him to take the match to the 4th or perhaps even all the way – the energy we know him to have was missing.
Murray capitalized on the same and won the last 2 sets 6-1 6-4, a dejected Kyrgios left the Wimbledon courts and a sense of “incompleteness” came from his stint at this year’s Wimbledon, he nevertheless is a prospect candidate for the tournament in near future.
The All-French quarter-finals
A lot of attention centered around the competitive battle between two French-men in Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Richard Gasquet, both players who don’t shy away from playing 5-setters and their sheer fitness levels make them a threat for any opposition, more so amongst themselves in spite of having played against each other for so many years.
The match however resulted in a dull encounter as Richard Gasquet was forced to drop out due to an injury after trailing 4-2 in the first to Tsonga. Gasquet will feel that he missed a possible Wimbledon chance coming his way with this injury, having looked in fine form all through this year’s Wimbledon. However, a French man in Tsonga has qualified for the quarters.
Another top-16 encounter hit by injury, Nishikori out
Kei Nishikori from Japan was ousted from the tournament due to his back injury and yet another round of 16 clash was hit by injury. Cilic vs Nishikori was a recreation of the rivalry back from 2014 US Open final, in which Cilic won against the Japanese star.
Before being hit by injury in this match, Nishikori had lost the first set 1-6 and was trailing 1-5 in the 2nd before retiring hurt and handing an easy win to Cilic.
Men’s Quarter-Final line up
Federer vs Cilic
Raonic vs Querry
Murray vs Tsonga
Pouille vs Berdych
Other results:
Raonic beat Goffin 4-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 6-4
Sam Querry beat Mahut 6-4 7-6 (5) 6-4
Serena Williams beat Kuznetsova 7-5 6-0
Halep beat Keys 6-7 (5) 6-4 6-3
Paes Hingis beat Sitak and Siegemund 6-4 6-4
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