Roger Federer reached the semi-final for a record 12th time. (Source: Reuters)
Playing his 100th Wimbledon match, he produced one of his best performance to make it special. Roger Federer played one of his best matches of Wimbledon to outclass Milos Raonic 6-4 6-2 7-6(4) on Wednesday and reach his 12th, a record, semi-final in London. The 35-year-old also avenged his loss from last year’s semi-final where Raonic had defeated him to reach his first ever Grand Slam final.
The 18-time Grand Slam champion is yet to drop a set in the tournament and will now meet 11th seed Tomas Berdych in the semi-final. Federer’s chances of winning his second Grand Slam of the year have increased after Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal all have lost.
Raonic, knock for his big serves, could not re-create the magic from last year as Federer had response to every trick including the serves to knock out the sixth seed Canadian.
The first set saw them holding their serves before the Swiss broke Raonic in the fifth game and took the game 6-4. He did not let Raonic make a comeback in the second set which was even more one sided.
Federer broke Raonic early this time and some lazy shots from Raonic made his work easier. In the third set, Federer was made to set a little as he saved three break points at 3-4 before forcing a tiebreaker.
Raonic began with some great groundstrokes and took a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker but Federer did not let his close out. The 18-time Grand Slam champion took five straight points. He hit an ace to bring up the match point and then won it when Raonic hit the backhand into the net.
Federer has yet to drop a set in the tournament this year and with defending champion Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal all out he is a huge favourite to become the first man to win the Wimbledon title eight times. He will play Czech Tomas Berdych, the 11th seed, in the last four.
