Wimbledon men’s quarterfinal: Andy Murray vs. Juan Carlos Ferrero
Britain’s favorite tennis playing son, Andy Murray, is in the final eight at Wimbledon as he tries to become the first native champion of tennis’ biggest event in 73 years.
The Scot got here thanks to a grueling 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 victory over Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka. It was a match that lasted nearly four hours and was the first match ever at Wimbledon that was fully under the new retractable roof at Centre Court. In fact, the match ended at 10:39 p.m. local time. No Centre Court match had finished later than 9:35 p.m. previously.
“It was pretty special,” said Murray, who is bidding to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. “Stan played a great match. The standard he set was tough to keep up with and I was getting very tired towards the end.”
The Scot could now enjoy an advantage over other players who haven’t experienced the indoor conditions yet.
“Now I know how I’ll have to change my game if I do play under the roof, and I’ll know the way that the court plays,” he said. “In my opinion, there’s quite a big difference.”
Murray now faces former French Open winner Juan Carlos Ferrero in Wednesday’s quarterfinal after he beat number No. 8 Gilles Simon. Ferrero, who is a big underdog on WagerWeb.com is a clay-court specialist, but it will be the Spaniard’s third appearance in Wimbledon’s last eight. He is the first wild card to reach the quarters since 2001. But the guy who did that in ‘01, Goran Ivanisevic, won the tournament.
Head-to-head, these two have played just once, a Murray straight-set win at the Queen’s Club warm-up tournament in early June.
“I think right now I’m with a little bit more rhythm than that week, and of course after the match I play against him I learn something,” said Ferrero. “I have to do my job, be aggressive all the time, because he likes to play in one level, and then he changes the rhythm very fast. I think it’s very difficult to play against him because of this. I will try to be focus in my return, because his serve has been very, very big.”
“I played very well at Queen’s but the courts here are a little bit different. Ferrero is a very tough player.
He plays well on any surface. (He is) a former world number one,” said Murray.
The winner of this match faces either 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt or two-time runner-up Andy Roddick.
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