We’re all set for action on Day 9 at Wimbledon 2016! The years rolled back on the lawns of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on day 8 of The Wimbledon Championships after both Williams sisters - Serena and Venus - reached the semifinals in the Women’s singles. The last time the sisters, who have 11 Wimbledon titles between them in the past 16 years, reached the semifinals together was in 2009. Joining them in the last-four stage was Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber and 29-year-old Russian Elena Vesnina, who is the only unseeded player in the semis.
It was plain sailing in the quarter-finals for the sisters, especially Venus who defeated Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova 7-6 6-2. Though the first set went to a tie-breaker, she hardly broke a sweat in the 2nd, clinching a straightforward victory. Even more impressive was the fact that the 36-year-old, a nostalgic favourite, became the oldest women’s semi-finalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994.
Serena, on the other hand, showed tremendous composure to get the better of Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-4. Despite the 21st seed giving her best, she could not match up to Serena, who knew when to attack and win key points.
Serena will face Elena Vesnina, who was in splendid form as she took down the fancied Dominica Cibulkova 6-2 6-2 in her quarter, in the semifinal while Venus will take on the German 4th seed Angelique Kerber, who downed Simona Halep 7-5 7-6.
A highly anticipated final showdown between Serena and Venus beckons and the fans will be drooling at the thought. But as is often the case in Wimbledon, you never know what might happen.
In the Men’s section, 10th seed Tomas Berdych reached the quarterfinals after a gruelling 5 setter against Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic. The 4-6 6-3 7-6 6-7 6-3 win, which was wrapped up today after the game could not be finished on Monday due to bad light, will see Berdych take on high-flying Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the last-eight.
Here’s a complete list of fixtures for day 9 of the championships-
Men’s Singles:-
| Time (IST) | Fixtures |
| 17:00 | Roger Federer (SUI) [3] v Marin Cilic (CRO) [9] |
| 17:00 | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA) [12] v Andy Murray (GBR) [2] |
| 17:00 | Sam Querrey (USA) [28] v Milos Raonic (CAN) [6] |
| 17:00 | Tomas Berdych (CZE) [10] v Lucas Pouille (FRA) [32] |
Men’s Doubles:-
| Time (IST) | Fixtures |
| 16:30 | Jonathan Marray (GBR) / Adil Shamasdin (CAN) v Treat Huey (PHI) [12] / Max Mirnyi (BLR) [12] |
| 16:30 | Raven Klaasen (RSA) [11] / Rajeev Ram (USA) [11] v Bob Bryan (USA) [2] / Mike Bryan (USA) [2] |
| 18:00 | Pierre-Hugues Herbert (FRA) [1] / Nicolas Mahut (FRA) [1] v Henri Kontinen (FIN) [10] / John Peers (AUS) [10] |
| 18:00 | Julien Benneteau (FRA) / Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) v Jamie Murray (GBR) [3] / Bruno Soares (BRA) [3] |
Women’s Doubles:-
| Time (IST) | Fixtures |
| 16:30 | Johanna Konta (GBR) / Maria Sanchez (USA) v Timea Babos (HUN) [5] / Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) [5] |
| 16:30 | Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER) / Kveta Peschke (CZE) v Raquel Atawo (USA) [10] / Abigail Spears (USA) [10] |
| 16:30 | Anabel Medina Garrigues (ESP) [14] / Arantxa Parra Santonja (ESP) [14] v Caroline Garcia (FRA) [2] / Kristina Mladenovic (FRA) [2] |
| 17:30 | Michaella Krajicek (NED) / Barbora Strycova (CZE) v Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) [4] / Elena Vesnina (RUS) [4] |
Day 9 Preview
Wimbledon on Wednesday will witness the quarter-final showdown in the Men’s singles. Though the fixture line-up looks woefully devoid of star names like Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka or even Rafael Nadal (who missed the tournament altogether), intriguing battles await us.
Roger Federer, the old warhorse who has a glorious opportunity to claim a record 8th Wimbledon title, and Andy Murray, the darling of SW19, will be the cynosure of all eyes as they continue on a collision course to the final.
First up on Centre Court will be Roger Federer, playing against the big-serving Croat Marin Cilic. For the Swiss maestro, this is a big opportunity to seal his first Grand Slam title since 2012 Wimbledon, especially with Djokovic out of the way. His opponent Cilic has never got past this round here and has only beaten Federer once in his career - during his successful campaign in the 2014 US Open. Despite that, Cilic starts as a massive underdog against FedEx, who hasn’t dropped a set yet.
Andy Murray has been pitted against Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the 2nd seed will also be making the most of the exit of his main challengers - Djokovic and Wawrinka. Tsonga is by no means a pushover and has proved himself to be a fine player on grass but Murray hasn’t lost to Tsonga on grass for a long time. Murray looked at his best during his win over Nick Kyrgios on Monday while Tsonga had an easy round after Gasquet retired hurt in the first set.
Meanwhile on Court No.1, Sam Querrey will take on Canada’s Milos Raonic. The American, the vanquisher of Novak Djokovic, will be riding high on confidence. It’s not often one defeats Novak these days and Raonic would do well to be wary of him. Interestingly, both Querrey and Raonic are big servers and it might just come down to who returns better.
The final quarter-final is between 10th seeded Czech Tomas Berdych and Lucas Pouille, the 22-year-old unseeded Frenchman who is playing his first ever Grand Slam quarter-final. He got past Bernard Tomic in the 4th round in a thrilling five-setter while Berdych also played a 5 setter, albeit over 2 days. The vastly experienced Berdych will be hoping to put an end to Pouille’s dream run.
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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