Roger Federer chases more history at Wimbledon

But the whip of the maestro miraculously brought an nearly finished match back to life. The same story was about to happen in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, which marked the first match between the two since 2014.

In Friday’s second semifinal, No. 2 Andy Murray will meet No. 10 Tomas Berdych. Federer, the No. 3 seed, will face sixth-seeded Milos Raonic.

Switzerland’s Roger Federer serves to Marin Cilic of Croatia in their men’s singles quarter-final at the All England Lawn Tennis championship in London on Wednesday. Now 30 years old, he could be facing his last, best chance. Then he leaned forward, placed his chin on a fist and responded wryly, “It’s not that bad, is it?”

“That’s why I was very intrigued, pushing myself a lot to get over the finish line….” “Yeah, I mean, it was an emotional win”.

Murray, who in 2013 became the first British man to win the title at Wimbledon in 77 years, reached his 20th semifinal at any major tournament with his win against the 12th-seeded Tsonga.

Ivan Lendl on the right would watch his pupil Andy Murray battle Jo-Wilfired Tsonga.

It took just an hour and 54 minutes as he corrected an early wobble in the opening set to take down beat Pouille and picked up a 7-6 (6-4), 6-3, 6-2. One of the best Wimbledon comebacks McEnroe has seen did not deter the three-time champion from spending Thursday plotting how to make sure the glorious Federer show does not go on. The 10th-seeded Czech’s fourth-round match against Jiri Vesely was stopped after four sets on Monday, and he completed the victory on Tuesday. The buildup to this epic quarter final saw him beating significantly lower ranked players, which is why this victory is a timely psychological boost as well.

The crowd assumed the third would be a formality, but Tsonga suddenly transformed into the aggressive and energetic player he can be and broke Murray once in both the third and fourth sets to level the match at two sets apiece.

Federer, however, was managed to cling on and gradually grew into the contest before seeing out a gruelling 6-7, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 triumph to the delight of his rapturous support on Centre Court – an arena he often describes as his home.

The Croatian squandered three match points in the fourth set before losing 6-7 (4-7) 4-6 6-3 7-6 (11-9) 6-3 to the Swiss great.

Novak Djokovic’s shock third round exit had raised hopes that this could be the week when the Swiss finally ends his four-year hunt for an 18th grand slam title, as the Serb had been the only man to beat him at the majors over the past year.

At 3-3, three backhand errors from Cilic allowed to Federer to stay alive from 0-40 down.

This is the 25-year-old Canadian’s second Wimbledon semifinal.

Roger Federer has acknowledged the impact good fortune is having on his bid to win Wimbledon for a record eighth time after his thrilling comeback win over Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals.

Match point No. 3 came at 7-6 in the tiebreaker.

It was just as well neither considered taking up a career in fortune telling as neither of those predictions came true – and the two will now be determined to clear the last treacherous hurdles looking to set up a blockbuster final on Sunday.

Raonic, whose serve hit 140 miles per hour, won 87 percent of his first-serve points and faced only two break points during the match.

He gained two set points at 6-4 and blew the first with a tight forehand that went long.