Andy Murray beat the rain and Marin Cilic to book his place in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for a fifth successive year.The pair had been forced off yesterday with the fourth seed leading 7-5 3-1 and endured more disruption today before Murray clinched a 7-5 6-2 6-3 victory under leaden skies on Court One.The Scot had looked nervy at the start yesterday but was much more fluent today and moved smoothly through to a last-eight meeting with Juan Martin del Potro or David Ferrer.Murray's absence from Centre Court had caused some controversy yesterday but the 25-year-old did not feel he had been unfairly treated.He said: "I don't care which court I play on. It makes no difference. Any player would rather play on Centre because it's got the roof so you'll get your match in."But I don't deserve to play every match on Centre, I just wish the weather was a bit better. I think I'll probably play on Centre."The players returned to Court One as scheduled at midday but it began to spit with rain just as umpire Carlos Bernardes called time.There was a brief delay before it was decided they could begin, and Murray needed only one point to move into a 4-1 lead.Cilic then held serve before Bernardes decided the rain was too persistent and they went off court again after barely five minutes of play and only six points.The rain did not last long but there were plenty of showers around and it was not until 1.05pm that the players returned to court.It began to spit again as they warmed up but there were no further delays and Murray easily held his serve to love to move 5-2 in front.The Scot looked confident and was hitting much more freely than yesterday, and a combination of backhand and forehand winners took him to set point on the Cilic serve.With the rain falling again he took it with another backhand return right at the feet of Cilic that the Croatian could only paddle into the net.The world number four lost his concentration a touch at the start of the third set and four times found himself break point down, but each time a big serve got him out of trouble and he held on.It was raining increasingly heavily and the players had an extended sit in their chairs at the change of ends, but they did not leave the court and were soon under way again.Murray was so confident he finished the third game with a second serve ace and then promptly broke again, a running forehand pass banging another nail in Cilic's coffin.Cilic, the 16th seed, had gone into the clash on an eight-match winning streak on grass after lifting the AEGON Championships trophy at Queen's Club but he looked to have little appetite for a fightback.He did save four break points in the sixth game to deny Murray a 5-1 lead, but it was only a temporary reprieve and the Scot clinched an impressive victory after two hours and 10 minutes when Cilic netted a backhand.
David Ferrer beat Juan Marten Del Potro 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, He struggled with his lines off the court, searching desperately for the right words in English and repeatedly falling back on 'unbelievable' to describe his play against the giant Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro in a fourth-round clash on Tuesday. "I played good, unbelievable... my form was unbelievable," Ferrer said. On court, however, the 30-year-old was at his articulate best, hitting the lines and finding the right length to put out the South American strongman.Next up for Ferrer is the home hope, the fourth-seeded Andy Murray.
Florian Mayer beat Richard Gasquet of France 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.Rain had prevented five of the men's fourth-round matches from being completed Monday. The weather continued to cause headaches as the start of play was delayed about 30 minutes because of light showers. When matches started, they were quickly halted again for another rain delay of about an hour.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reached the quarter-finals for the third year in a row at the All England Club on Tuesday after a hard-fought 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over the American Mardy Fish in a match affected as much by rain and medical timeouts as by anything that happened on the court. The fifth seed from France, a semi-finalist 12 months ago, clinched victory with his 20th ace to set up a battle with Germany's Philipp Kholschreiber, a straight-sets winner over the American qualifier Brian Baker.On another gloomy, rain-delayed day, the trainer was on and off the court almost as much as the players. First it was Tsonga who had treatment on a back problem at the end of the second set and then Fish left the court for attention at the end of the third. Considering the stoppages and two more rain delays, the quality of tennis was surprisingly high and Tsonga will feel as relieved to survive as he will be satisfied with his performance.The last time the two men met, at the same stage of the US Open last year, Tsonga needed five sets to get through. Fish had a medical procedure in May to try to pinpoint an accelerated heartbeat and, having not played since April, surprised even himself by reaching the last 16. Tsonga was a doubt for Wimbledon after injuring the little finger on his right hand, so this was something of a battle of the walking wounded.Having held serve in the first game of the day, Tsonga broke for 3-1 with a great backhand volley and held for 4-1 before the first rain delay. When they came back, Fish was sharper and he broke back for 4-3 only to lose the tie-break 7-4. Tsonga then took a timeout, seemingly for a lower back problem, but he returned to break Fish in the first game of the third set. The Frenchman saved a break point at 4-3 and saved two break-back points at 5-4 to take the set, prompting Fish to take a timeout of his own.Another break, in the third game of the fourth set, put Tsonga in control and, after a lengthy delay for rain with the score at 4-2, he maintained his concentration to book his place in the last eight.
Victoria Wazarenka announced herself as a real contender for the Wimbledon title on Tuesday when she beat the rising Austrian, Tamira Paszek, 6-3, 7-6, moving into the semi-finals for the second successive year. The Belarusian will take on the four-times champion Serena Williams for a place in her first Wimbledon final and, having not dropped a set en route to the last four, her confidence is growing by the day.The No2 seed's victory also moved her a step closer to regaining the world No1 ranking, a goal that will be realised if she reaches the final or if Agnieszka Radwanska fails to win the title. Beaten by the champion Petra Kvitova in the last four 12 months ago, she is determined to add to the Australian Open crown she won at the start of the year.Over the past few weeks the 21-year-old Paszek has shown she could be a star of the not too distant future, winning the title in Eastbourne and knocking out the former world No1 Caroline Wozniacki in the first round here on her way to her first grand slam quarter-final.Ranked 37 and an excellent mover, her flat, hard-hit ground strokes are clearly well suited to grass and she showed plenty of fight. But while Azarenka dropped only one point on serve in the first set, every point on Paszek's serve was close, with one service game lasting 12 minutes. The Austrian saved five break points with some smart play before she finally sent a backhand wide in the eighth game and Azarenka then served out to love.Azarenka looked set to close it out when she broke to lead 5-4 but dropped her own serve. Another break gave her another chance but again Paszek broke back before Azarenka finally wrapped up victory by taking the tie-break 7-4.
Angelique Kerber defeated fellow German Sabine Lisicki, the conqueror of Maria Sharapova, in a nerve-racking battle of the blondes 6-3, 6-7 (7/9), 7-5 on Tuesday to reach her first Wimbledon semi-final.Eighth seed Kerber will face either Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska or Maria Kirilenko, the Russian 17th seed, for a place in Saturday's final after getting the better of big-hitting Lisicki.The match, played under the Centre Court roof as rain continued to plague the schedule, showcased the first time since 1987 that two German women had made the quarter-finals.The 24-year-old Kerber, who had never previously got beyond the third round in four previous appearances at the All England Club, racked up a tour-leading 45th win of the year.But it was a roller-coaster affair for Kerber who squandered four match points as memories of the five match points she wasted in the Eastbourne final against Tamira Paszek almost came back to haunt her.Lisicki, sporting vivid yellow nail polish on her fingers, needed treatment on a painful-looking blister on her left thumb at the end of the first set and quickly fell 3-0 down in the second.But she battled back to 3-3, saved two match points in the 10th game and another in the tiebreak.In the decider, there were six breaks of serve in 11 games before Kerber finally won through to claim her fifth win in five meetings against her Fed Cup teammate.Lisicki finished with a whopping 57 winners but 50 unforced errors while Kerber fired down just 19 winners but with a low of 13 errors.
Agnieszka Radwanska held her nerve during three rain breaks and a mid-match court switch to outlast her former doubles partner Maria Kirilenko 7-5 4-6 7-5 and reach the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time on Tuesday.The third seed had been the only top-10 woman not to reach the last four of a major but she corrected that anomaly by resisting a determined second-set fightback from Kirilenko in a stop-start match in which fortunes wildly fluctuated.The players appeared to be done for the day at 4-4 in the third set when the heavens opened again over Court One, with the umpire announcing: "Play is suspended for the evening and will resume tomorrow".However, just under two hours later the duo took everyone by surprise when they re-emerged under Centre Court's covered roof.The 23-year-old Radwanska needed just 15 minutes under floodlights to finish off Kirilenko and become the first Pole to reach a grand slam semi-final since tennis turned professional in 1968."Today for me was like 40 hours," said Radwanska, who will face eighth seed Angelique Kerber in Thursday's semi-finals.Radwanska, who has a chance to become world number one if she reaches the final here, had missed opportunities to wrap up the match in two sets.She twice went a break up in the second set but both times let 17th seed Kirilenko break straight back and the Russian took the set with another break before rain interrupted play for some 35 minutes.When the pair returned, Radwanska again went a break up, then surrendered her next serve. Her inconsistency gave Kirilenko confidence and the Russian began hitting aces at will, winning the seventh game to love before play was halted early in the ninth because of rain and deteriorating light on Court One.Radwanska was pleased that the last few games could be squeezed into the Centre Court schedule after Victoria Azarenka needed only two sets to beat Tamira Paszek in their quarter-final."It is always a bit difficult when you switch court," the Pole said in a courtside interview. "I am just very happy; it is better to finish on one day than wait for another day."
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