Wimbledon 2013 will be remembered as a tournament of shocks but unless giants Juan Martin del Potro and Jerzy Janowicz can chop Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray down to size, Sunday’s men’s final will be a showdown between the world’s top two players.
In a sport that plays on the psychologically vulnerable and demands supreme levels of physical endurance, the consistency of Djokovic and Murray in reaching the business end of grand slams is nothing short of remarkable.
When Djokovic takes to Centre Court to play Argentine Del Potro, it will be his 13th successive semifinal at a major, while Murray’s match-up against Janowicz will be his fifth consecutive appearance in the last four at Wimbledon.
Should they both win, it will be the third time in the last four grand slams that they have met in the final.
Their rivalry has usurped that of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the biggest draw in the sport and with the Swiss maestro and the Spanish matador having been dumped out early, two different faces will contest Friday’s semis.
Del Potro, a grand slam winner at the US Open in 2009, is hardly an unknown, but Janowicz has emerged from obscurity and will enter the world’s top 20 next week.
Both players are imposing figures on court. Poland’s Janowicz stands at 6-foot-8 and Del Potro is a mere two inches shorter.
Both have booming serves and heavy duty forehands and both are distant outsiders to cause an upset – bookies have Djokovic a 1-6 favourite to beat Del Potro and Murray is 1-5 to end Janowicz’s surprise run.
Del Potro will do well just to make it on court. After a nasty tumble in his third-round match, when he collided with a chair, he has played with heavy strapping around his knee.
His quarterfinal against David Ferrer looked like it was going to be over after just five points when the Argentine eighth seed slipped, over-extended the wounded knee and needed a medical timeout.
PUMMELLING FOREHANDS
The emphatic way he came out hitting, however, pummelling forehands past one of the sport’s best defensive players, showed that although his movement might be restricted, he remains a major threat as long as the ball is within range.
“I’m not going to put my body at risk,” he said. “The doctors tell me with this tape and taking some anti-inflammatories you can play.
“If they say something different, I will think.”
He will need to be 100 per cent to have a chance against Djokovic.
The only former champion in the last four has a 8-3 winning record against Del Potro, is one of the game’s very best returners and will keep him working his wounded limb from start to finish.
Some comfort for Del Potro is that he won their last meeting at the Indian Wells Masters in March as well as the bronze medal match on the Wimbledon lawns at last year’s Olympics.
Murray, looking to shed the millstone of becoming the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win the Wimbledon title, faces a similar threat.
Janowicz, a qualifier last year who has rocketed up the rankings and beat compatriot Lukasz Kubot in straight sets in the last eight with the help of 30 sizzling aces.
He is Poland’s first male grand slam semifinalist and, at 22, is the youngest man to reach the last four at Wimbledon since Murray in 2009.
“I hope Andy will feel some kind of pressure,” he said. “I’m sure he will feel some kind of pressure because Great Britain is waiting for the champion of Wimbledon.”
The pair have played each other twice with US Open champion Murray winning one and Janowicz the most recent encounter at the Paris Masters in November.
“It will be a very tough match,” Murray said. “He has a big serve. He’s a big guy with a lot of power. He also has pretty good touch. He likes to hit dropshots and doesn’t just whack every single shot as hard as he can.”
Del Potro, Janowicz crash Wimbledon party
Hobbling Juan Martin del Potro and Polish trailblazer Jerzy Janowicz hope to derail the Wimbledon title dreams of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the world’s two best players, in Friday’s semi-finals.
Del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion, just about survived his quarter-final against David Ferrer when he strained his already heavily-bandaged left knee in a sickening Centre Court tumble.
The giant Argentine now tackles world number one and Australian Open champion Djokovic.
Janowicz, the first Polish man in the last-four of a major, takes on US Open and Olympic champion Murray who is bidding to be the first British man in 77 years to win Wimbledon.
Djokovic has an 8-3 winning record over Del Potro but the Argentine won their only other previous meeting on grass in the 2012 Olympics bronze medal play-off which took place at Wimbledon.
Del Potro also won the pair’s last meeting in March, on hard court in the Indian Wells semi-finals.
But Djokovic, having escaped the shock exits suffered by the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at this year’s Wimbledon, believes that he can still play better.
“It’s the mindset I always try to have, because that’s something that keeps me going every single day on the practice courts, day in, day out, trying to give my best and trying to always inspire myself to play better tennis,” he said.
“I know I have a quite complete game, but I still feel there is room for improvement.”
The Serb, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, will be playing in his 13th successive Grand Slam semi-final, 10 behind the record held by Federer.
At Wimbledon this year, he is chasing a seventh major.
Top seed Djokovic won’t be lulled into a false sense of security by the injury-cursed Del Potro’s latest problems.
The 24-year-old eighth seed is used to tackling physical problems.
In 2010, he played just three tournaments and saw his ranking slip to 257 in the world after undergoing wrist surgery.
“He struggled with injuries in last few years, but every time he comes back he comes back very strong because he just has this talent and qualities as a player,” said Djokovic.
Del Potro’s 2009 US Open win was the only time in the last 33 Grand Slams that the champion wasn’t called either Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray.
Like Djokovic, Del Potro has reached the last-four – his first semi-final at Wimbledon – without dropping a set.
“I will need to be 110 percent against Novak. He’s the number one. He’s a former champion. It’s going to be a more difficult match for me,” Del Potro said.
Second-seeded Murray, the runner-up to Federer in 2012, will be playing in his fifth consecutive Wimbledon semi-final, but he had to come from two sets to love down to beat Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals.
It will be his 13th major semi-final, equalling the national record set by Fred Perry, the last British man to win the title in 1936.
“It will be a very tough match. Janowicz has a big serve. He’s a big guy with a lot of power,” Murray said of his Polish opponent who has fired a tournament-leading 94 aces at Wimbledon this year.
They have a 1-1 record but Murray lost their last meeting at the Paris Masters in 2012 when Janowicz came through qualifying to reach the final.
“He also has pretty good touch. He likes to hit drop-shots. He doesn’t just whack every single shot as hard as he can,” the Scot said.
Janowicz, the 24th seed, is this year’s rags-to-riches Wimbledon story.
When he once played the US Open, New Yorkers coughed up to buy him tennis shoes while, two years ago, when he was ranked at a lowly 221 in the world, he didn’t have the cash to buy a ticket to the Australian Open.
“I have had some troubles during my career. You practice and work for these kind of moments,” said Janowicz, who broke down in floods of tears on Wednesday when he defeated compatriot Lukasz Kubot.
