Scotland’s Andy Murray will face Canada’s Milos Raonic in Wimbledon final
The Wimbledon gates opened Friday morning and, despite admonishments over the public-address system not to run, thousands of well-heeled fans charged up a hillside like a scene from “Braveheart” to claim a prime piece of real estate.
Those who had grounds passes – but not coveted Centre Court seats – unfurled their blankets on a grassy slope to watch on a cinema-sized, outdoor TV screen local hero Andy Murray make another run at tennis immortality.
The teeming fans were not disappointed, as Scotland’s Murray, who won men’s singles here three years ago, dominated Tomas Berdych, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, to claim a spot in Sunday’s final.
“For British players growing up, this is the biggest competition,” Murray said. “To get to play in front of a home crowd in a Grand Slam final is very, very rare. There’s not many players that get the opportunity to do that. Yeah, this one always feels a little bit more special.”
Murray will play Canada’s Milos Raonic, who knocked off another fan favorite, seven-time Wimbledon winner Roger Federer, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the earlier match at Centre Court.
“I was struggling through many parts of the match,” said Raonic, who lost to Federer in the semifinals here two years ago. “He gave me a little opening towards the end of the fourth. I made the most of it, then I sort of tried to run away with it.”
Both Raonic and Murray are pioneers of sorts. Not only is Raonic the first non-European to make it to the Wimbledon men’s singles final since Andy Roddick in 2009, he’s the first Canadian to get to any Grand Slam singles final. (Canada native Greg Rusedski played under the British flag when he made the U.S. Open final in 1997.)
When Murray won Wimbledon in 2013, he became the first British man in 77 years to win a singles title on that hallowed ground. The grass amphitheater long known as “Henman Hill” was alternatively nicknamed “Murray Mound.”
The weekend will kick off with the women’s singles final Saturday, when six-time Wimbledon winner and world No. 1 Serena Williams, who has torn through the tournament, plays fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany. Kerber won this year’s Australian Open by upsetting Williams.
The world’s No. 1 men’s player, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, was upset in the third round by Sam Querrey, a Thousand Oaks High graduate. That created a huge opportunity for the rest of the field, as Djokovic had won the past four Grand Slams.
Whereas Murray has the local roots, Federer was the sentimental favorite. At 34, he’s nearing the end of his illustrious career. He was vying for his eighth Wimbledon singles title, and had captured the imagination of tennis fans with his stirring comeback from knee and back injuries that kept him out of the French Open in May. That was the first Grand Slam event he had missed since 1999.
Federer assembled an impressive string of victories in this tournament, including a five-set victory over Croatia’s Marin Cilic in the quarterfinals, when he rallied from a 0-2 deficit to win three sets in a row.
Federer called that Cilic match one of the best of his career. Conversely, the Swiss star will try to purge Friday’s stumble from his memory as quickly as he can, especially after he had multiple break points in the fourth when he led in sets, 2-1.
“This one clearly hurts, because I felt I could have had it,” Federer said. “So close. At the same time, I totally overachieved here.”
A Wimbledon rock star, Federer got rousing ovations when he walked onto the court, throughout the match, and when he spun around and waved to the spectators in defeat.
“I was looking at Centre Court as in, ‘Thank you for the great feeling that you gave me throughout the championships,’” said Federer, who last won Wimbledon in 2012. “I was fortunate enough to play all my matches on Centre Court. I don’t take that for granted.”
The square-jawed, 6-foot-5 Raonic booms his serves, with the fastest Friday clocked at 144 mph (compared with Murray’s 134). Berdych said that could be the Canadian’s most effective tool in the final.
“But,” Berdych said, “I think Andy is one of the best in eliminating the big weapon of the opponent.”
Raonic wasn’t rattled by all the support the fans showed Federer. He knows he’ll once again be the party crasher when he steps onto the court against Murray.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily the villain, [but] you face what you have to face,” Raonic said. “First and foremost, I’ve got to face myself, then I’ve got to face Andy. The rest, if I don’t have control over, I try to make it irrelevant to me as possible.”
The point is, Raonic will be relevant on Sunday. And he’s just fine with that.
Doubles
It will be a busy day for Williams, who will play in the first and third matches at Centre Court. The first will be the women’s singles final, and the third will be the final for women’s doubles.
Serena and Venus Williams will play Hungary’s Timea Babos and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova for the doubles title.
The middle match will be the men’s doubles final, pitting a pair of French teams. Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut will play the team of Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Twitter: @LATimesfarmer
UPDATES:
1:03 p.m.: This post has been updated with more details on Friday’s Wimbledon results.
11:21 a.m.: This post has been updated with Andy Murray defeating Tomas Berdych in the other semifinal match.
This post was originally published at 9:15 a.m.
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