Roger Federer is two wins away from securing his 18^th Grand Slam title, but an in-form Milos Raonic looks to stop the Swiss star with a blend of power and guile.

Previewing the two semi-final matches…

[6] MILOS RAONIC (CAN) vs. [3] ROGER FEDERER (SUI)

FedEx ATP Head2Head: Federer leads 9-2

Despite overcoming a two-set deficit and saving three match points in an epic quarter-final match against Marin Cilic, Federer comes into the semi-finals having spent two fewer hours on court during the tournament than Raonic. The Swiss has only dropped two sets this fortnight, both against Cilic. Raonic came back from 0-2 down for the first time in his career against David Goffin in the fourth round and edged Sam Querrey in four sets in the quarter-finals.

Raonic, seeded No. 6, is a match away from reaching his first Grand Slam final. He’ll be out for revenge as Federer beat him in the same stage of The Championships two years ago. The Canadian has never won a grass-court title and has yet to win a set against Federer in a Grand Slam championship, but did win the pair’s most recent meeting in the final of Brisbane 2016.

At 34, Federer is aiming to become the oldest Wimbledon finalist since 39-year-old Ken Rosewall finished runner-up in 1974. The last man older than Federer to reach any Grand Slam final was 35-year-old Andre Agassi, who fell to the Swiss at the 2005 US Open.

[2] ANDY MURRAY (GBR) vs. [10] TOMAS BERDYCH (CZE)

FedEx ATP Head2Head: Murray leads 8-6

Murray has not lost to Berdych in nearly three years, but has never faced the 2010 Wimbledon finalist on grass. The 2013 champion has swept the pair’s past four meetings, three of them in straight sets. Coming into the semi-finals, Berdych is the fresher of the two, having dismissed first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist Lucas Pouille in just under two hours while Murray needed a fifth set and nearly four hours to see off Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his previous match.

With a semi-final win, Murray will reach his 11^th Grand Slam final and take sole ownership of the record for most appearances in a Grand Slam final by a British man. He currently shares the record with Fred Perry. Only three active players (Federer, Nadal and Djokovic) have more Grand Slam final appearances than the Brit.

Berdych is looking to become the first Czech man since Ivan Lendl, Murray’s current coach, to reach multiple Wimbledon finals. He is on a 17-match losing streak against players in the Top 2 of the Emirates ATP Rankings. His last win came against Murray in Cincinnati 2013.

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History will be made at Wimbledon with the tournament’s first all-French doubles final after top seeds Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Nicolas Mahut and Julien Benneteau/Edouard Roger-Vasselin won hard fought semi-final matches on Thursday.

Herbert/Mahut survived a five-set battle against No. 12 seeds Treat Huey/Max Mirnyi, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4, while Benneteau/Roger-Vasselin defeated No. 11 seeds Raven Klaasen/Rajeev Ram, 7-5, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(5). The two French teams have only played each other once, with Herbert/Mahut prevailing in a deciding set in the quarter-finals at last year’s Australian Open. Only one all-French doubles team has won Wimbledon in the Open era (Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra in 2007). The last all-French doubles final at a Grand Slam took place at Roland Garros in 1932.

Mahut has now reached the doubles final of all four Grand Slams, while Herbert reached his first Wimbledon final. The pair won last year’s US Open and finished as runner-up at last year’s Australian Open.

Benneteau and Roger-Vasselin haven’t reached a Grand Slam final since prevailing at Roland Garros in 2014. Roger-Vasselin’s best Wimbledon result is a semi-final finish in 2013 (w/Rohan Bopanna), while Benneteau reached three quarter-finals in 2010 (w/Michael Llodra), 2013 (w/Nenad Zimonjic) and 2014 (w/Roger-Vasselin)

Herbert/Mahut broke serve in the first game of their match and rode that momentum all the way to the opening set. Huey/Mirnyi earned their first break of the match on a double fault to lead 5-3 in the second set and then held serve comfortably in the next game to level the match at one set each.

Both teams held serve all the way through the third set to force a tie-break, where Huey/Mirnyi went on a four-game run to lead 6/2 and then took a commanding lead after winning their second set point. A backhand winner from Mahut gave the French pair the lone break of the fourth set to lead 5-4 and they forced a deciding fifth set in the next game.

The teams traded routine service holds in the final set until 4-4, when the top seeds were gifted a break of serve on a double fault. Herbert/Mahut held to love in the next game, with Mahut firing an ace on match point to send them into the final.

Benneteau/Roger-Vasselin grabbed the lone break of serve at 5-5 in the opening set of their match and served it out one game later, then repeated that script by earning the only break in the second set to lead 4-3. Klaasen and Ram were unable to convert on four break point opportunities in the first set, but didn’t have a single opportunity in the second set as the French pair took a commanding two-sets lead.

The No. 11 seeds finally made good in a return game by breaking to lead 6-5 in the third set and comfortably holding serve one game later to close the gap. Both teams held serve throughout the fourth set to force a tie-break, where Benneteau/Roger-Vasselin went on a four point run to lead 6/2. Klaasen and Ram nearly staged a comeback, but the Frenchmen prevailed on their fourth match point.

At the only grass-court tournament in continental Europe, the lawns are wet and the tennis balls are low bouncing. A one-time happy hunting ground, Richard Krajicek is far from positive. His spirits, and those of his coach, Rohan Goetzke, have worsened progressively. Narrow wins over Jacco Eltingh and Hendrik Jan Davids precede a 6-4, 7-5 loss to Paul Haarhuis. Goetzke is fuming.

“He put in a shocker,” recalls Goetzke, his Australian coach of nearly six years. “He was hitting the ball okay, but he wasn’t confident.”

“I wasn’t motivated to play,” admits Krajicek. “During my career, I battled myself as well as my opponent. There were times in practice when my coach would be shaking his head. My attitude was bad, not even that – I wasn’t trying, but I was getting too upset. I was too much of a perfectionist.

Goetzke tells Krajicek, “There’s nothing wrong with your game. You serve and return well. You’re a whinger!

“If you go on holiday, I’m gone. Wimbledon is the biggest tournament of the year. You’re going to look back on your career and wonder where it went. Do something!”

A holiday beckons.

“We had planned to go to Austria, for a sporting vacation,” remembers his wife, Daphne Deckers, 20 years on. “Richard was always improving with Rohan, although life as a professional tennis player is hugely stressful for all parties.”

Krajicek takes time out. But he soon calls Goetzke, ready to work. They head to London. “You can win this,” Goetzke tells Krajicek. “You can go a long way. You need to enjoy the process, the ride.”

“We decided to train on hard courts, as I always struggled with rhytmn,” remembers Krajicek. “My game wasn’t too much rhytmn, but the points were so short that after a couple of days on the grass, I felt I was playing worse and worse. Maybe I was serving and volleying good, but I had no timing. I was reading this article that when Andre Agassi won Wimbledon in 1992, he spent hardly any time on grass. It was all hard courts. He just wanted timing. I hit a few times on hard court, only 20 minutes a day, then I kept having a good feeling.”

Aged 24, Krajicek has already overcome two knee surgeries and he’s also been out of action for five months without going under the knife. “My knee was always a problem,” explains Krajicek. “It was part of my body. I was told I was quite strong, but because I was always serve and volleying, and I was tall I had more chance for injury. That was the downside, but the upside was that I was able to play the way I did.”

With two first-round losses at The Championships – to decent grass-court players: Darren Cahill in 1994 and to Bryan Shelton in 1995, Krajicek’s main goal is to survive round one. Despite being No. 14 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, he isn’t among the list of 16 seeds. But No. 2-ranked Thomas Muster is angered by his seeding of seventh and withdraws due to a left thigh muscle injury that he picked up at The Queen’s Club. The announcement comes through on 20 June, following the Austrian’s 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 loss to Brett Steven at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle. Krajicek moves into Muster’s slot. It’s three days before The Championships begins.

Krajicek comes up against Steven on the ‘graveyard.’ Court No. 2.

“He wasn’t focused,” remembers Stanley Franker, who, at the time was the Dutch Davis Cup captain. “He was trying so hard to lose the match. I remember leaving the court, because it was so frustrating.”

“The third round was bad weather, windy and cold,” says Krajicek. “I got back in my negativity, in my old ways for the first two sets. I won the first set 7-6(5), then I lost 6-7(5).”

At 1-4 down in the third set, Krajicek is on the edge.

“Then I turned a switch in my head,” says Krajicek. “‘Okay, let’s stop complaining and play,’ I told myself. It was probably my most important match for the way I thought.”

“I returned to see him re-born,” says Franker.

Goetzke recalls, “Afterwards, I asked, ‘You okay?’

“He said, ‘You don’t need to say anything, I’m good’. It was like going back to his younger days…”

Krajicek first met Goetzke aged 16. On a four-week European tour in 1989, they hit it off and Krajicek’s game continually developed in his training alongside the likes of Paul Dogger and Eltingh.

“It wasn’t immediately apparent that he would make it, like some juniors” says Goetzke. “Richard was competitive and wanted to win, but he got frustrated easily. He learned to be a pro.”

“At the age of 10, he didn’t have big shots,” admits Franker. “But he had a great game. He was a little lazy, but he worked on his attitude and he responded well. He later shot up and was totally uncoordinated. But his body developed. Rohan and Richard were a fantastic match.”

“He wanted to win and fight, and he could hang in there,” says Goetzke. “But it cost a lot of energy and time. I recall coming down on him once in practice, when he was playing with younger players, prior to going to the 1991 Stuttgart Indoors. I told him to ‘go back and apologise, otherwise we’re done.’ It was a rollercoaster.”

Krajicek says, “Rohan always knew when to be tough with me and when to take it easy, Strategically, he helped me improve as a player and into a happier person.”

“I got tough on some players and I didn’t care who it was,” says Franker, who helped to establish the standard for every Dutch player in the 1980s and 1990s. “If they saw my face, they knew they hard to work. You had to be 100 per cent professional, otherwise you wouldn’t play for Holland. You had to walk the walk and set an example.”

Peter Wessels is a product of the Dutch system. As one of the world’s top juniors he is enlisted by Goetzke to practice with Krajicek, from his second-round victory over Derrick Rostagno. “Peter was someone Richard knew,” says Goetzke. “Someone he felt comfortable with, so it enabled him to relax and it gave both of them a lift.

“At the start, we’d nearly gone back to a double-handed backhand, that’s how bad it had been. Richard’s backhand had been a weakness, his lesser stroke. But he served great, was good at the net and had good movement. In stopping his bid to try to perfect his backhand, we worked on his strengths. It was then tough to find a hole in his game.”

Krajicek and Wessels sessions are not too long, an hour or so a day. “I remember him being pretty relaxed yet very focused and determined,” remembers Wessels, who is now based in the United Arab Emirates. “In the past, they’d practised serve accuracy by aiming on muesli bars placed in the service box. These were muesli bars we both hated, but if one of us hit the bar the other one was forced to eat it. I remember hitting the bar, but he never ate it…”

“To me, personally, he looked different on court compared to some other tournaments where I’ve seen him play. In the training sessions, he was a bit more positive than usual. Sometimes he could get down on himself or even a bit cranky when things didn’t go his way, but I didn’t see that at all during the tournament.

“It motivated me that he did so well. I had in my mind that it would be a great story if two Dutchmen could win Wimbledon in the same year.”

It’s three years since Krajicek first played on Centre Court, when he lost to defending champion Andre Agassi 7-5, 7-6(7), 7-6(8) in the 1993 fourth round. For the past two days, it has been raining in London. Krajicek stayed on top of Michael Stich, one of the sport’s most naturally talented players, in a tough fourth-round victory by maintaining a really aggressive brand of tennis. Today, Wednesday, 3 July, Krajicek is confident that he can overcome Pete Sampras, the three-time champion, in a contest on the sport’s grandest stage. The pair has met four times, but not since the Paris Indoors at the end of 1994.

“I always played good against Pete,” admits Krajicek, who saves five break points in a 12-minute third game. “I knew he was a great front runner.” With rain interrupting the match at 2-2 in the first set, Sir Cliff Richard, a member of the All England Club, is coaxed by chief executive Christopher Gorringe to sing during a break in play of three hours and 40 minutes. A request for one song, ‘Summer Holiday’, becomes an impromptu concert and his backing group, the ‘Shadows’, feature Pam Shriver, Conchita Martinez, Gigi Fernandez, Virginia Wade, and finally, to a big cheer, Martina Navratilova. The rain delay lasts three hours and 40 minutes. Krajicek bides him time, “relaxing, only doing things to help you feel good.

“Once I won that third game and we got to 4-4 and 5-5, I was surprised how well he played. I was surprised how well he started. There was so much energy. He felt really good on the court. It was a different Pete Sampras to any time I played him. Because I’d stayed with him, saving all of those break point chances, I felt that his energy level come down a bit. He knew I would be intimidated a bit by Centre Court. If Pete had broken me in the third game, I think it would have been totally different. I had a bit of luck, but from 4-4 we were equals.”

The second chapter lasts one hour and 37 minutes. The third passage, a further 51 minutes. With a two-sets-to-love lead and at 1-1 in the third set, just as Krajicek strikes his 23rd ace, and, in spite of blue skies overhead, the players are forced into the locker room. Krajicek and Sampras don’t return until the next day. “The reason why we couldn’t play was because one of the ground staff slipped under the covers, leaving the court exposed,” remembers Krajicek. With physio Jan Naaktgeboren set to work on Krajicek’s increasingly sore shoulder, the hotel and room service beckoned. “Play was cancelled pretty much straight away.

“So many times you see top players compete and they are struggling in the beginning of a tournament, then an opponent makes a mistake or something happens, then their fortunes change. In my brain, I hoped this wasn’t something that would save Pete. Maybe, if we’d returned, the match might have changed. Because I was in the flow and he was struggling. In the end, he had a night to re-group with his coach and I had a night of thinking what might happen.”

Goetzke recalls, “Pete did not like to play Richard. You always felt in the match with Pete and it was a tall order to comeback from two sets down. Richard regrouped and carried the momentum into the following day.”

Go To Part II: Continue Reading…