The first semifinal of the day will see Roger Federer rekindle his love affair with Wimbledon but it remains to be seen whether it will have a happy ending against 6th seeded Milos Raonic. The Canadian, by no means a pushover, will want to exact revenge for his loss to Federer at this very stage 2 years ago.
Federer is coming off a stunning comeback win after going 2 sets down against Marin Cilic while Raonic packed off Sam Querrey in 4 sets. The Swiss will be in high spirits, but a highly improved Raonic will provide a tough test for him. Raonic will have noticed that Federer struggled early on in his quarterfinal when faced with fast serves and will try and bank on his serve-and-volley game.
But Federer is a master of the serve and volley, and Raonic might find it risky to implement it against Roger. The Canadian has already hit 114 aces in the tournament - a stat Federer will be well aware of. The wily maestro is likely already hatching a plan to negate that.
Raonic is coached by Carlos Moya and with John McEnroe as a consultant, the 6th seed might just fancy his chances of reaching the final.
Andy Murray, the hot favourite to win the tournament, will battle 10th seed Tomas Berdych in the 2nd semifinal. Murray is coming from a hard fought 5 set victory over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga while Berdych had an easy outing against Lucas Pouille. Nevertheless, the Scotsman starts as the overwhelming favourite.
The 2 have a bit of history between them - the 2015 Australian Open semifinal between the two had witnessed an ugly spat between the two and their support team. Murray won the encounter in 4 sets but not without drama as he was incensed at the Czech for trying to steal his then coach Ivan Lendl. The incident also saw Murray’s fiancee Kim Sears shower Berdych with a volley of abuses.
Whether that incident will have a bearing on this match is uncertain but it sure will be an interesting match. The neutrals will want to see Federer spar with Murray in the final but Raonic and Berdych will want a say in that matter as well.
What happened yesterday?
Women’s 4th seed Angelique Kerber’s impressive showing while defeating Venus Williams helped her set up a rematch of the Australian Open final against Serena Williams on day 10. But it also crushed the hopes of fans who wanted to see the Williams sisters face off on the lawns of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club.
While Kerber set about fortifying her reputation of spoiling ‘occasions’ for the Williams family, Serena breezed past unseeded Russian Elena Vesnina to send a warning shot before Saturday’s final.
Serena took to Centre Court first and promptly displayed devastating tennis, as is her wont, to pummel the Russian 6-2 6-0 in just 48 minutes. It was a flawless performance from the American. She was more stronger, more powerful and miles better than Vesnina. The stats highlighted her dominance as well - 28 outright winners and 11 aces to complement 0 double faults. In fact, Vesnina could not even fashion a break point for herself.
If she carries on in this vein on Saturday, Steffi’s record of 22 Grand Slam titles will be under threat.
In the other semifinal, Venus Williams’ hopes of joining her younger sister was ended by Angelique Kerber. The 4th seeded German dispatched off the 36-year-old Venus 6-4 6-4 in a match that lasted 77 minutes. The first set started at a frantic pace - first 5 games were breaks before Kerber held serve and broke again to go 5-2 up. Venus got a break back but ultimately lost the set 4-6. In the 2nd, a visibly slower and struggling Williams couldn’t keep up as Kerber booked her spot in the final.
Considering that Venus battled her way to the semifinals with Sjögren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease that causes chronic fatigue and muscle soreness, a semifinal appearance at Wimbledon in itself is a victory for her.
Here’s a complete list of fixtures for day 11 of the championships:-
Men’s Singles:
| Time (IST) | Fixture |
| 17:00 | Milos Raonic (CAN) [6] v Roger Federer (SUI) [3] |
| 17:00 | Tomas Berdych (CZE) [10] v Andy Murray (GBR) [2] |
Women’s Doubles:
| Time (IST) | Fixture |
| 17:00 | Timea Babos (HUN) / Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) [5] v Raquel Atawo (USA) / Abigail Spears (USA) [10] |
| 17:00 | Serena Williams (USA) / Venus Williams (USA) v Julia Goerges (GER) / Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [8] |
Fans across the world can tune into the following networks to catch all the action live on television:
ARQ (NOVA/CET 21)-CZECH REPUBLIC & SLOVAKIA
B92 (RTS)-SERBIA
BEIJING TV-CHINA
beIN SPORTS-FRANCE, MIDDLE EAST
CCTV5-CHINA
CTV/TSN-CANADA
ESPN-UNITED STATES
EUROSPORT-RUSSIA, UKRAINE, BALTICS, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, ESTONIA, MOLDOVA, ARMENIA
FOX-NETHERLANDS
FOX ASIA-PAN-ASIA
FOX SPORTS-AUSTRALIA
GLOBOSAT/ESPN-BRAZIL
HRT-CROATIA
I.K.O (SPORT KLUB)-BOSNIA, CROATIA, MACEDONIA, MONTENEGRO, SERBIA, SLOVENIA
JIANGSU TV-CHINA
KENTRON TV-ARMENIA
MOVISTAR+-SPAIN
NHK-JAPAN
SETANTA-REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
SEVEN-AUSTRALIA
SKY DEUTSCHLAND-GERMANY & AUSTRIA
SKY ITALIA -ITALY
SPORT TV-PORTUGAL
SPORTS CHANNEL-ISRAEL
SRG-SWITZERLAND
STAR INDIA-INDIA
SVT-SWEDEN
THE TENNIS CHANNEL-UNITED STATES
TV3 (VIASAT)-DENMARK
TVNZ-NEW ZEALAND
Fans can also catch the action on the internet via live streaming in websites www.wimbledon.com and www.starsports.com
All the action kicks off at 3.30pm IST.
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