French Open semifinals: Murray-Wawrinka, Nadal-Thiem

Murray was tossing the ball up when umpire Carlos Ramos gave it.

“We’re going to try to get together in Wimbledon but I mean, that’s all for now”, he added.

Thiem has yet to get past the semi-finals at any Grand Slam tournament. I think I’m playing better than past year, also.

“I think being physically fit is the key to his performances right now”.

Thiem, also a semifinalist at Roland Garros a year ago, is coming off a straight-set upset of defending champion Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals. I came in playing garbage. “I play a great match or two in a row, and then I play a completely opposite match. It was just today it was just odd how it came about”.

Bacsinszky won the last four games to wrap up the second set 6-3.

“He had no injuries in the last six months and I think it’s very important for him to feel like this”.

He clinched victory on his first match point when Nishikori failed to return a powerful serve.

The Spaniard, 31, has been getting them out of there in close to 90 minutes per match, reaching the semi-finals for the loss of just 22 games in five matches – the fewest games lost to this stage of a Grand Slam since best-of-five matches were introduced.

Groenefeld was looking for another mixed title at the clay-court major, having already won in 2014 alongside Jean-Julien Rojer.

The surly Czech has been interacting more than usual with Murray’s rants between points at Roland Garros this fortnight, and his normal terse silence has been interrupted by the occasional cry of ‘Come on!’

Second-seeded Karolina Pliskova advanced to the semifinals of the French Open by beating No. 28 Caroline Garcia of France 7-6 (3), 6-4.

“He has hit 61 forehand groundstroke winners to the semi-final, with the majority hit straight down the line”.

Not only that but sixth seed Thiem has not dropped a set en route to Friday’s semi-final and on Wednesday trounced defending champion Novak Djokovic 7-6 6-3 6-0. She fended off another set point in the next game but a forehand error handed Halep the set.

Djokovic will win more slams (though catching Federer seems, for the moment, to be out of the question) but going four-for-four and playing in three major finals per year?

Dominic Thiem, 23 and on the rise, was throwing himself into next-gear forehands; sprinting and sliding for drop shots and exuding the sort of power and relentless positive energy needed to win Grand Slam titles.

Whether or not Thiem beats Nadal, he will be viewed as one of the most risky opponents on the surface from here on in but considering he was branded as the third-favourite for the title heading into the event, it appears to be a tag he’s more than capable of dealing with.

The Serb was on the ropes and was broken in the first game of the third set as Thiem edged closer to avenging his semi-final loss previous year. And really, I could even see Thiem winning.

With the wind whipping at more than 15 miles per hour (25 kph), and the temperature in the low 50s (low teens Celsius), Djokovic was out of sorts in so many ways even before that 20-minute third set in which he won only 8 of 34 points.

He then also held all four majors.

Wawrinka has won all 15 sets he has played, knocking over risky opponents like Fabio Fognini, Monfils and Cilic without any fuss.

Gustavo Kuerten marked the 20th anniversary of his first Roland Garros triumph on Thursday by backing Rafael Nadal to win 15 French Open titles. It was not immediately clear what was wrong with Carreno Busta.

The second-seeded Czech hit 24 unforced errors as Halep took the opener 6-4.

Dominic Thiem after defeating Djokovic.

Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic might be cold during their French Open quarterfinals. Mostly because there is little he can do to get around it.

Thiem has beaten Nadal, Djokovic and Murray on clay already this year, while Kyrgios thumped Djokovic in back-to-back matches in Acapulco and Indian Wells.