Andy Murray and Roger Federer will look to reach the Wimbledon final on Friday and preserve the iron grip of the sport’s ‘Big Four’ which has endured since 2003.
Andy Murray and Roger Federer will look to reach the Wimbledon final on Friday and preserve the iron grip of the sport’s ‘Big Four’ which has endured since 2003.
After Lleyton Hewitt triumphed 14 years ago, the following 13 men’s titles have been shared between Federer, Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. The four heavyweights have also filled eight of the last 10 runners-up spots.
Standing in the way of 2013 champion Murray and seven-time winner Federer getting to Sunday’s final are Tomas Berdych, the 2010 runner-up, and sixth seed Milos Raonic.
Berdych trails Murray by 8-6 in career meetings while Federer has a 9-2 lead on Raonic, the youngest of the four semi-finalists at 24.
Second seed Murray needed a tough five-setter to get past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and reach his seventh Wimbledon semi-final and 20th at all the majors.
Friday’s match throws up a new dynamic as he and 10th seed Berdych have never met on grass.
“I’ll have to see some of his matches to get an idea of maybe some of the things he does differently on the grass courts, what his strengths are, maybe some of the things he struggles with a bit,” said 29-year-old Murray, who has already been runner-up this year at the Australian and French Opens.
“Obviously he’s a big guy who serves well. 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.”
Federer, bidding for a record eighth Wimbledon title and 18th Grand Slam trophy, said: “I was very worried coming here.
“I think it was huge for me to play the seven matches I did in Halle and Stuttgart.
“Then knowing that I had a week in between, if I get through the first week at Wimbledon, who knows. I put myself in that position perfectly without dropping sets, which was a big surprise to me.”
