Anyone of a betting inclination would have been resigned to short odds that the quarter-finals of the Gentlemen's Singles at this year's Championships would include the defending champion and world No.1, Novak Djokovic, and the six-time champion of Wimbledon, Roger Federer. But who would have bet that among the remaining half-dozen contenders, in addition to the fourth and fifth seeds Andy Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, would be a trio seeded 26, 27 and 31? Truly the world of men's tennis has admirable depth.
To take the last first, the 31st-seeded Florian Mayer is a 6ft 3in German who has known what he called "dark times" in his recent career. Now the sun (metaphorically at least in this wretched British summer) is beaming down on Florian, a native and resident of the Wagnerian festival town Bayreuth. Mayer played some thunderous stuff of which Wagner would have been proud in ejecting France's Richard Gasquet from the fourth round, hammering 14 aces and countless laser-like backhands and his reward is a Centre Court outing against Djokovic.
Even this news hasn't daunted someone who has only reached a Grand Slam quarter-final once before, on these very lawns in 2004. After paying respectful tribute to the top man in tennis, Mayer announced his game plan: "I will try to irritate him maybe a little bit. You never know in tennis. Everything is possible." Indeed it is, Florian, as Rafael Nadal discovered last week when he lost to someone ranked 100th. So one must wish Mayer happy irritating, and also lots of luck because he will need it.
Djokovic is motoring with ominous intent, just one set conceded so far in four matches as he bids to become the first man to retain the Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Singles since Federer in 2007. Although he has come down from the incredible heights of 2011, the man known as Nole to his pals is still flying higher than most in his profession, having won the Australian Open and been runner-up at Roland Garros this year. The two have met only once before, Djokovic winning 7-5 6-1 in last year's Dubai quarter-finals.
Yesterday's fourth round victory of another from the Fatherland, the 27th-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber, means that Germany has two men in Wimbledon's last eight for the first time since Michael Stich and Nicolas Kiefer in 1997. It is also the first-ever quarter-final at a Grand Slam for Philipp Eberhard Hermann Kohlschreiber, to give him his full-out name, which would require a lot of etching on any trophy, not that such delicate work will be necessary if Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, fifth seed and last Frenchman standing, gets his wish. Tsonga should get the chance to repeat his joyful on-court victory twirls here last year today, since he has come out on top in five of their six previous clashes.
The draw has also finally come out tough for the 26th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny, whose task is to halt the progress of Federer, the man in dedicated pursuit of his seventh Wimbledon crown. The head to head statistics illustrate just how tough. Thirteen times these two have clashed in a rivalry stretching back a dozen years, and 13 times Federer has been the one to come out on top, including once in the fourth round in four sets at Wimbledon 2011. Having clocked up his 30th birthday on the opening day of this tournament, the Muscovite will be happy to note that Federer is quoted as saying he is a tough opponent who must be respected.
The fourth of the quarter-finals is the one involving Britain's Andy Murray, the Scot being willed towards a Wimbledon win by the whole nation. In prospect, it promises to be the closest match of the four, since Murray is seeded fourth and his opponent David Ferrer seventh. What's more, these two have split their 10 previous meetings, with Murray tending to win on harder surfaces and the Spaniard triumphing on his native clay.
It is perhaps Ferrer's misfortune that his career has run in tandem with that of Nadal and has thus been overshadowed, because he is a fine player in his own right and, as Murray is keen to point out, a pretty useful operator on surfaces other than clay. It wasn't clay expertise which helped him see off the giant Argentinian Juan Martin del Potro in straight sets to reach his first Wimbledon quarter-final, so we may be looking at a close one. That said, as ever, a nation expects, Andy.
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