Murray Knocked out, Injured Djokovic Retires, Federer through to Semis

WIMBLEDON 2017

Defending champion Andy Murray appeared hampered by injury as he was wednesday knocked out of Wimbledon 2017 in the quarter-finals by Sam Querrey on Centre Court.

Querrey, 29, won 3-6 6-4 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 6-1 to become the first American man to reach a Grand Slam semi-final since Andy Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009.

The Briton, 30, led by a set and a break but lost 12 of the last 14 games as he struggled physically.
Elsewhere, Novak Djokovic who was expected to leapfrog Murray retired from the Wimbledon during his quarter-final clash against Tomas Berdych with an injury.

The former world number one lost the first set 7-6 (7-2) to the Czech, and was 2-0 down in the second when he had to retire.

Djokovic, 30, had treatment on a shoulder injury during his last-16 win over Adrian Mannarino and needed further attention against Berdych. The Serb would have returned to world number one if he had won Wimbledon.

Murray looked on course for an eighth win in nine matches against Querrey when he led by a set and a break, but less than two hours later he was out, after the American fired down his 27th ace.

Querrey took his chance superbly, hitting 70 winners, 30 of them from the net as he attacked at every opportunity.
Roger Federer on the other hand maintained his bid for a record eighth Wimbledon title as he moved into the last four with a 6-4 6-2 7-6 (7-4) win against Milos Raonic.

Federer, 35, made short work of beating last year’s runner-up with a trademark display on Centre Court as he won in his 100th singles match at Wimbledon.

He will now play Tomas Berdych in Friday’s semi-final.
With Andy Murray also out, Federer is a huge favourite to take the title.
American Sam Querrey will play Croatia’s Marin Cilic in the other semi-final.

For Murray, it appeared that the hip injury that disrupted his build-up to Wimbledon had finally caught up with him.
After breaking serve to lead 4-3 in the second set, letting out a loud “come on!”, Murray dropped serve twice in a row, his opponent firing a brilliant backhand to clinch the set.

Any thought that it was a momentary lapse from the champion disappeared when Murray was broken again serving for the third set, but he took the tie-break on his fourth set point and seemingly regained control.

In fact, it was Querrey who took command as Murray appeared underpowered and unable to move freely.
The Scot won just nine points on serve in each of the fourth and fifth sets, with an average serve speed down at just 108mph, allowing Querrey to tee off on the return.

The American played a magnificent point at the net to break for the eighth time, serving out the match after two hours and 41 minutes.

Querrey will now face seventh seed Marin Cilic in the semi-final after he beat Gilles Muller in five sets.
Muller – who beat Rafael Nadal in just under five hours on Monday – took the first set but former US Open champion Cilic came through to win 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 5-7 7-5 1-6.

Murray was struggling with a hip injury in the build-up to Wimbledon, pulling out of two exhibition matches and missing three days of practice before his opening match.

But he would not tell the post-match news conference exactly what his injury was, only that he regretted a missed opportunity to add to his two Wimbledon titles.

He said: “Throughout the tournament I’ve been a little bit sore but I tried my best, right to the end I gave everything I had, and I’m proud about that but it’s obviously disappointing to lose.
“There was an opportunity there so I’m sad that it’s over.

“Before the tournament it was very short-term solutions because you want to play Wimbledon.”

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