Day 9, Thursday
That's it from our side. Tune in to our live blog tomorrow as it will be the women's singles semifinals -- Elina Svitolina vs Simona Halep followed by Serena Williams vs Barbora Strycova.
11:28pm: There is the match! Rafa Nadal roars "Vamos!" after he wraps up the match 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 to set up a semifinal clash with his great rival Roger Federer. The meeting between tennis giants will be their first since the epic 2008 Wimbledon final which lasted for 6 hours 13 minutes and played over two days. Nadal came out the winner 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 back then, For neutrals like us, we hope Friday's matchup will be just as epic.
11:19pm: Nadal breaks Querrey for the second time in the set. He smashes an ace, his ninth of the match, in the fourth game. Someone in the audience shouts "Let's go, Roger!" and the Spaniard chuckles. His messes up his next serve, but smashes a forehand to the left-hand corner to make it 5-1.
11:11pm: Rafael Nadal is cruising in the third set at 3-1. Querrey has hardly been able to muster a good return. He is able to hit a forehand return on one point, but stays rooted to the ground as Nadal's powerful shot lands on the baseline.
11:03pm: Federer is looking forward to it and so are we: "We have a lot of information on Rafa and so does he on us. You can dive into tactics or you can say it’s good for tennis. I’d love to play him against him again at Wimbledon."
Meanwhile, Nadal goes up a break in the third set and holds serve to go 2-0 up. I think he has heard about Federer making it. He's hurrying through this one now. Can't keep your rival waiting.
10:56pm: Rafael Nadal is only a set away from facing Federer in the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the second time this year. He takes the second set against Querrey and leads 7-5, 6-2.
10:52pm: Roger Federer holds to love and he's into the Wimbledon semifinals for the 13th time! He beats Kei Nishikori 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 and that's his 100TH WIN AT WIMBLEDON.
10:50pm: Weird. Federer breaks AND Nadal breaks! Querrey and Nishikori hit their forehands long.
Nadal is serving for the second set and Federer is serving for the match.
10:31pm: What a shot! That backhand is a thing of beauty. Nishikori can just watch as Federer chases down a drop and blasts it past the Japanese with his backhand. No breaks so far and Nishikori leads the fourth set 3-2.
10:30pm: A delicious forehand slice and Nadal breaks in the second set to take a 2-1 lead.
10:26pm: Querrey and Nishikori each hold. Nishikori to take a 2-1 lead in the fourth set and Querrey wins the first game of the second. Their opponents could meet each other in the semis on Friday. What a year that would make it! Two Federer-Nadal Grand Slams semifinals in a year.
10:20pm: Rafael Nadal wins the first set 7-5! It hasn't been easy for the Spaniard.
Nadal saves a break point with an ace down the middle but Querrey gets back on break point as Nadal hits a backhand long. That's saved too. The cycle repeats as he concedes another one and saves it with a similar ace. But Querrey sends a forehand wide and Nadal gets to a fifth set point. The big American's return goes wide and he wins it.
Nishikori holds in the first game of the fourth set.
10:10pm: Federer wins the third set and leads Nishikori 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. He saves a break point and gets to set point but wastes it. He puts away the next chance with ease.
10:05pm: What a game! Nadal eventually comes out the winner as Querrey's volley goes wide. Nadal's pumped. Querrey saved three break points but couldn't see it through.
Nadal serves for the match.
10:02pm: Sam Querrey gets right back in the set with a break! 5-5.
Some impressive play from Querrey to save set point. Nadal tries to get to the overhead volley but his return is long. Querrey then does even better to send Nadal the wrong way as he buries a backhand down the line.
Federer has held to love to go 5-3 up in the third set.
9:53pm: Federer breaks after a long game to lead 4-3 in the third set! Federer gets to a third break point in the game after Nishikori nets a simple forehand. But that's saved too with a good serve that forces Federer's backhand long. Federer manages to bring it back to deuce with a beautiful forehand pass. Federer returns long again and advantage Nishikori, but that's gone too as he his shot sees the net again. With a nasty forehand that just stays in, he breaks.
Querrey has, meanwhile, held serve to stay in the set. Nadal serves for the set at 5-4.
9:50pm: Nadal holds after a long game. Sam Querrey gets on break point with a good volley . But Nadal saves it. They stay at deuce for a while, but Nadal holds and leads 5-3. Nadal's serving has been excellent so far, with a 93% win percentage on first serves.
9:34pm: Nishikori holds serve in a game that lasted five deuces and eight miinutes. 1-0 to Nishikori in the third set.
Oh quick fact: Roberto Bautista Agut is the sixth Spanish man to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon.
9:28pm: Nadal breaks Querrey's serve! Big Sam can't quite return a vicious forehand from the Spaniard and Nadal jumps and punches the air like he has won the whole thing. 2-1 lead in the first set.
9:20pm: Roger Federer wins the second set 6-1! Nishikori seems to have poked the monster by winning the first set. Federer was in absolute control in the second and doesn't look like losing it soon.
9:11pm: GOAT ALERT 2! Rafael Nadal, the other Spaniard I was talking about, is on court. Sam Querrey is here, too. Hoping to grab the biggest win of his career.
9:10pm: Federer has hit max rev! He's unstoppable and Nishikori just looks lost. It's a 3-0 lead to the man who we tend to forget is 37.
9:08pm: Brutal hitting! Federer breaks to take a 2-0 lead in the second set! He whacks a forehand down the line. Don't even think of getting there Nishikori.
9:00pm: Nishikori takes the first set 6-4! After losing the very first set of the tournament against South Africa's Lloyd Harris, Federer hadn't dropped one till today where he was broken in the first game. Nishikori who started brilliantly managed to hang in as Federer slowly started to get into his rhythm. Now comes a bigger challenge.
8:54pm: Down the middle! It's beautiful watching Federer get into rhythm. With a precise second serve that Nishikori can't return, Federer holds. Now Nishikori will serve for the set.
8:45pm: Roberto Bautista Agut does it! He beats Guido Pella 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in three hours and seven minutes and is into his first Grand Slam semifinals. One Spaniard's in the semis. The other could follow soon.
Bautista Agut will meet Djokovic in the semifinal.
8:43pm: Federer fails to take his chance. How often does one say that? Nishikori comes back to save a break point and hold serve. He leads 4-2. You would say a Federer surge is coming. I don't see it yet.
8:40pm: Serena Williams and Andy Murray are out! They lose the third set pretty poorly. Top seeds Nicole Melichar and Bruno Soares win 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
MurRena or SerAndy, hope they come back to figure that out. What a treat it's been watching them!
8:39pm: Nishikori is really outdoing his decorated opponent! He gets to another break point with a lob over Federer who is caught at the net. Federer saves that one but concedes another with a double fault (what? unusual). But with a simple overhead winner and an ace, he holds. Nishikori leads 3-2.
Pella has kept himself in the game with a great hold! But Agut is still dominating and holds serve in the next game to make it 5-2. Pella serves to stay in the match. Knowing him, he could stay in the match for longer.
8:30pm: Both Andy Murray and Serena Williams' serves have been broken! Melichar and Soares have a 4-1 lead in the final set after Murray/Williams finally hold. Hope there's a comeback on the cards.
8:26pm: Drastic stuff in both games. Agut has broken in the fourth set to go 3-1 up .
And Federer survives a big, big scare! He goes down 0-40 but wins five straight points and comes back to win the game , closing it with an ace. Nishikori leads 2-1.
8:22pm: Federer in trouble. Nishikori looks like he's going to take the game to live, but Federer comes puts up a fight. Not enough though, and as a backhand goes wide, Nishikori takes a 2-0 lead .
8:18pm: Huge moment! Nishikori has done the unthinkable and broken Federer in the first game of the match. He really hung in there on the last point, covering the net well.
Big moment on court one as well. Pella gets up to a 15-40 lead but Agut saves two break points and wins the game. 2-1 to Agut in the fourth.
8:11pm: Another comeback here! Serena Williams and Andy Murray have broken and taken the second set 6-4! Against the first seeds Nicole Melichar and Bruno Soares, they lost the first set 6-3, but the 'dream team' has made a resoute comeback in the second.
8:09pm: GOAT ALERT! (The first one) Roger Federer takes his place on the court to some undying applause. Don't want to be in the shoes of Kei Nishikori today.
8:05pm: Set! Guido Pella wins the third set 6-3! Agut gets a chance to break back but this fella (sorry) is looking so confident. He kills off a return at the net with a volley and saves break point. Pella gets up to set point and Agut's backhand hits the net. The Spaniard almost got back. If he lets it slip from here, it's going to be back-to-back sensational comebacks from the Argentinian.
7:59pm: Roberto Bautista Agut won't let him have it so easy. He plays an easy winner into the open court after Pella rushed to get to a dying drop shot. Agut holds and it's 5-3. Pella to serve for the set.
7:50pm: Guido Pella holds to make it 5-2 with a superb reach at the net to end an equally lovely rally.
7:47pm: Pella goes 4-1 but Bautista-Agut holds to love to make it 4-2. The Spaniard is doing his best to stop the Argentine's comeback.
7:41pm: Djokovic: "He started well. I played a good game at 3-4 and there was a crucial service game at 5-4. Who knows what the match would look like if I had lost the first set?"
7:40pm: Two sets down, but 3-0 up in the third! Pella likes going 2-0 down and then fighting back in the third set, doesn't he?
DONE AND DUSTED! Novak Djokovic is through to his ninth Wimbledon semifinal. The Serb beats Goffin 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 and reaches his 36th Grand Slam semifinal. The match, which was competitive when he was trailing in the first set, looked like a formality once Djokovic found his rhythm.
Funnily, David Goffin won just six games today - one fewer than Bernard Tomic did in his first-round loss which was deemed so bad that he was docked 100% of his prize money.
7:35pm: Like he did in the previous round against Milos Raonic, Pella is kickstarting a comeback. He leads Bautista-Agut 2-0 in the third set.
7:29pm: The fewest games Djokovic has ever lost in a Grand Slam match? Seven against Lu in 2010. He's 6-4, 6-0, 5-2 at the moment. Will he get a personal best today?
Sharing tweeners
7:23pm: Djokovic saves a break point and he's now 4-1 up in the third against Goffin. A fist pump and a look into the skies after he won that game. The finish line not far away now.
7:21pm: While Pella did fight back from two sets down against Milos Raonic in the previous round, a similar comeback looks unlikely here.
7:20pm: Court 1: Bautista-Agut takes the second set 6-4. He is one set away from his maiden Grand Slam semifinal.
Guido Pella kept his cool at 40-30 to force Bautista-Agut to serve for the second set. The Argentine, though, can't do enough to test the Spaniard's nerves as Bautista-Agut defends his record of not conceding a set at Wimbledon 2019. An accurate cross-court forehand at 40-15 wraps it up with one hour 44 gone.
7:18pm: It is getting worse for Goffin here. Djokovic breaks for 3-1 in the third set and is, most likely, minutes away from wrapping it up.
7:15pm: Djokovic's forehand and backhand down the line have been so so good since he was trailing in the first set. Inch perfect every time.
7:13pm: Court 1: Bautista-Agut takes a 5-3 lead in the second set.
7:09pm: Not another bagel! Goffin FINALLY wins a game again. It is 1-1 in the third set.
7:07pm: Djokovic avoiding a break from 40-0 up. He wins 10 games in a row now and is 1-0 up in the third set. Another bagel in the making?
STAT: If you are a Goffin fan (or Goffin himself, in which case HELLO!) look away now. The only player to have beaten Djokovic from two sets down at a Grand Slam is Jurgen Melzer. And that happened at the 2010 French Open!
7pm: The match on Court 1 is thankfully a little more entertaining. Bautista-Agut might be a set up but Pella is making him earn the point. The Spaniard leads 3-2 in the second set.
6:59pm: Its a bagel! Nice use of the backhand slice from Goffin to save a bagel point but it is only a minor blip as Djokovic wraps up the second set 6-0. He has won 9 games in a row and is 196-1 at Grand Slams when leading by two sets to love.
There's a lot of cheering with Goffin facing set points. The crowd is not shy to who they are supporting today.
6:50pm: Djokovic follows up a double fault with a good serve into Goffin's body before the Belgian hits a poorly directed forehand into the net and the top seed is now 5-0 up in the second set.
The 3 "young" players in the men's singles quarterfinals (the 3 players under 30, that is) are Goffin (28), Pella (29), and Nishikori (29). And two of them are already in deep trouble.
6:47pm: All of a sudden, Goffin isn't as consistent as he he was when the match started. His energy has fallen off and Djokovic leads 4-0 in the second set. It seems like an entirely a different match right now.
6:44pm: A break and a quick hold and Novak Djokovic is well in control now. He leads Goffin 3-3 in the second set. Goffin broke the Serb at 3-all in the first set and when he was up 4-3, 30-0 he missed a serve by an inch. Since then, he has lost six games in a row. Insane.
6:40pm:And Bautista-Agut takes the first set 7-5!
6:45pm: Djokovic starts the second set the way he ended his first. Picks up the first game and then breaks Goffin to take the second. He's breezing though now.
6:35pm: Bautista-Agut has come back strong! He now leads Pella 6-5 and is serving for the first set. Bautista-Agut, by the way, is yet to drop a set at Wimbledon this season. He's the only singles player yet to lose a set.
Break Points: Pella 1/7 and Bautista-Agut 1/8
6:30pm: Goffin was up 4-3 but Djokovic came back strong from there. The Serb is 60-0 at Wimbledon after winning the first set!
6:27pm:Djokovic breaks Goffin and seals the first set 6-4 in the process! After fighting through the set, a sloppy backhand gives the set to the top seed.
And on Court 1, Pella has taken a 5-4 lead against Bautista-Augt.
6:18pm: Djokovic breaks! And it's 4-4 here too. Djokovic comes up to the net and plays a drop shot with Goffin nowhere on scene.
6:16pm: And he gets it! On his SIXTH break point. Agut pulls a forehand wide and it's 4-4 in the first set.
On Centre Court, Goffin has saved a break point with a delightful drop.
6:13pm: Meanwhile Pella and Agut are engaged in an equally enthralling battle. Pella is on a quest to break back and level things in the first set. But Agut has saved FIVE BREAK POINTS!
6:11pm: Goffin with the first break! Djokovic's forehand is wide and Goffin takes a 4-3 lead in the first set.
So much speed on display. Goffin, who looks nimble on his feet, charges to the net to play a cross court drop. But Djokovic is not a lesser being. He's able to get to it and plays a delightful return to win the first point of the game.
6:07pm: Goffin holds at the end of a super rally. He plays a backhand slice from the baseline that Djokovic chooses to see out, but it just stays in and Djokovic can't believe it. 3-3. Nothing to choose between the two yet.
5:58pm: Goffin holds to love and levels the set 2-2. The rallies are long here and Goffin's holding his own against the world no.1.
Pella recovers well to make sure he doesn't concede another break. Agut still leads 3-2.
5:50pm: Djokovic holds after a minor scare. He leads 2-1 in the first set. Djokovic saves a break point with a forehand winner setting Goffin up with a serve down the middle. Goffin gets back up to break point but that's saved too, with an ace. Djokovic seals it as Goffin hits a forehand into the net.
5:45pm: Agut takes a 2-0 lead in the first set.
Goffin looks solid. He also holds his first service game. 1-1
5:43pm: We're underway! And Rafael Bautista Agut has the early advantage. He breaks Guido Pella in the first game of the match.
Djokovic sees no problem holding in the first game.
5:10pm: There's so much happening in a day at Wimbledon, you're bound to miss a few things. But the Wimbledon twitter handle has got us covered. A slipping ball boy, two matches on court and an umpire playing tennis.
5:07pm: Ready?
Preview
Even when the men's singles seeds kept falling one after the other, three men at the top were unmoved,like they've been for most of the 21st century. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are into the deep stages of a Grand Slam again. It has been 17 years since anyone other than these three and Andy Murray have won at Wimbledon and their dominance at the top is still strong, at the expense of what they call the 'lost generation' - full of talent and potential, but overshadowed by three Giants.
No rest for Serena Williams. She will have played three days in row at Wimbledon tomorrow because she's pairing up with Andy Murray for their mixed doubles round of 16 match today. This is her cooling down after her women's singles quarterfinals win against Alison Riske , after which she and Murray - the dream team - went on to grab an enthralling mixed doubles win .
Djokovic vs Goffin head to head
Novak Djokovic and David Goffin are meeting for the first time in two years. Goffin won their meeting at the Monte Carlo Masters quarters in 2017. But Novak has won the rest of their six matches. This will be the first time they play each other on grass.
Federer vs Nishikori head to head
Roger Federer takes on eighth seed Kei Nishikori. Federer leads the head-to-head record 7-3. Nishikori got the better of the 20-time Grand Slam champion in their last meeting at the ATP Finals last year. They've met on grass only once before at Halle in 2014 and Federer won that 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Nadal vs Querrey head to head
Rafael Nadal and Sam Querrey are also meeting after two years when the American beat Nadal in the final at Acapulco. Nadal has won four of their five matches and it'll be the first time they play each other on grass.
Pella vs Bautista Agut head to head
Roberto Bautista Agut has won both his previous clashes against Guido Pella, the most recent in the quarterfinals at Munich this year.
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