On a rain interrupted day at Wimbledon, British No.1 Andy Murray managed to book his place in the quarter-finals of the men’s draw with victory over Marin Cilic.
When the rain brought his game to a halt on Monday evening, Murray was a set to the good and a break up in the second. It was therefore widely expected that he would complete the victory.
He did so by playing some excellent tennis too, without doubt his best of the tournament so far. The Scotsman – who won 7-6 6-2 6-3 in the end – will now face David Ferrer in the last eight.
This is after the in-form Ferrer managed to beat the tricky Juan Martin Del Potro in straight sets this afternoon. The Spaniard dominated his opponent and he goes into the match with Murray in fantastic spirits, no doubt about that.
Looking at the rest of the men’s quarter-final line-up, No.1 seed Novak Djokovic will take on Florian Mayer who came through in four sets against Richard Gasquet. Then, Roger Federer is set to face experienced Russian Mikhail Youzhny.
As we moved into Tuesday evening, the final quarter-finalist to be confirmed was Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who managed to defeat Mardy Fish in a tense, competitive match on Court No.2. The No.5 seed – who powered his way to a four set win – will now face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the last eight.
Traditionally, today was supposed to be all about the Ladies quarter-finals of course. With regards to these matches, which eventually got underway on Tuesday afternoon, the first match to cast an eye over was Serena Williams v Petra Kvitova.
This was expected to be an epic battle between a Wimbledon legend and the defending Champion, but in the end it was Williams that secured victory relatively comfortably. The American won 6-3 7-5, thus becoming the first confirmed women semi-finalist.
Next to book her place was Angelique Kerber as she defeated fellow German Sabine Lisicki in three sets. It was an entertaining match between two good friends, but in the end Kerber’s extra quality shone through.
Kerber will now play Agnieszka Radwanska after she defeated Maria Kirilenko in three sets. They resumed their match late on centre court with the score 4-4 in the final set. It really could have gone either way at this stage, but it was Radwanska that pulled through.
Under the centre court roof, the final scheduled match on day eight of the Championships saw Victoria Azarenka and Tamira Paszek go head to head. No.2 seed Azarenka won the first set, but her opponent – buoyed by plenty of support from the crowd – kept fighting.
In the end though, Azarenka battled to a 6-3 7-6 victory. The crowd were willing the match to go into a final set, but in the end the Australian Open Champion had enough to force the win in the tie break.
Overall, it was another fascinating day and with the men’s quarter-final matches to follow on Wednesday, it is set to get better and better.
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