Men’s Semifinals Offer One Surprise

Three insiders and one outsider. That about sums up the men’s semifinals today at Wimbledon.

Nearly everyone expected that the final four would include two-time defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland, 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Andy Roddick, U.S. Open champion in 2003.

The one outsider is actually another Grand Slam champion, Thomas Johansson of Sweden, who has done little since winning the Australian Open in 2002.

Johansson, 30, described as “unreal” his presence in the semifinals.

“A lot of people, they did not think I was going to be able to come back,” said Johansson, who missed 2003 because of surgery to his left knee. “ ... I remember the first tournament I played [in 2004] after my injury in Adelaide. I was practicing for like five, six days. I did not win one set. I said to my coach, ‘I think this is it.’

“I was practicing with a winner, the finalist, and a semifinalist all these four or five days. So apparently I was playing really well.”

The second-seeded Roddick will play No. 12 Johansson in the second semifinal on Centre Court, and it is the Swede’s first semifinal appearance here.

That will follow the highly anticipated match between No. 1 Federer and No. 3 Hewitt.

Federer is 9-8 against Hewitt and has won their last seven meetings.

The last time Hewitt defeated Federer was in the 2003 Davis Cup semifinals in Melbourne, Australia.

There, Federer led, 7-5, 6-2, 5-3, before losing in five sets.

Roddick and Johansson have met only twice. Roddick won both matches, including a four-setter at Wimbledon in 2001 in the second round.