Andy Murray nearly let a glorious opportunity of winning his second Wimbledon title go in the quarterfinal against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. And with that in mind, Murray will hope to have a firmer grip in his semifinal against Tomas Berdych when the two players clash at Centre Court on Friday.
Having taken a two sets to love lead against Tsonga on Wednesday, with the second set won 6-1, Murray was expected to cruise into the semifinals. But, Tsonga suddenly found a different gear, Murray started making mistakes and just like that the match went into the fifth set.
While Murray found his bearings in that decider, taking it comfortably 6-1, the No.2 seed will be wary of letting his standards drop even for a single game when he faces Berdych, a player he has had a few issues with in the past, in the Wimbledon semifinals.
"I was definitely tested a lot (against Tsonga)," Murray told reporters. "Probably the hardest match. Well, my match with Milos at the final of Queen's, I was in a tough position there. But that was, yeah, a really hard, hard match to come through.
"I think it can give you a bit of confidence. It can help to go through games and stages in matches that are challenging. If you're in that position in the next couple of matches, you know you've been there. So I'm hoping it helps me the next couple of rounds."
Berdych, who has lost eight of the 14 matches against Murray, had no worries in his quarterfinal encounter, coming through in straight sets against Lucas Pouille. The No.6 seed has been to a fair few Grand Slam semifinals in the past, but his conversion rate in the last-four matches is not the greatest. Berdych, who reached his only major final at Wimbledon in 2010, will know that statistic needs to change on Friday.
"Definitely, those are the experience from 2010 that I will try to look back on," Berdych, who beat Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals and semifinals before losing to Rafael Nadal in the final six years ago, said. "But mostly is the fact that that was the first time which I show myself that I can play well for two weeks.
"I can beat the best guys not only at the beginning of the tournament, but also in the later stages. That's just the few things that I'm going to try to focus on."
Where to Watch Live
Andy Murray vs Tomas Berdych is the second match of the men's semifinals to be played at Centre Court. The first match -- Federer vs Raonic -- is set to begin at 1 p.m. local time (5.30 p.m. IST, 8 a.m. ET) start. Below is the TV and live streaming information.
India: TV: Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1. Live Streaming: Starsports.com and Hotstar.
UK: TV: BBC Two and BBC One. Live Streaming: BBC iPlayer.
Asia: TV: Fox Sports Asia. Live Streaming: Fox Sports Play Asia.
France and Middle East: TV: Bein Sports. Live Streaming: Bein Sports Connect.
Australia: TV: Fox Sports. Live Streaming: Foxtel.
Europe: TV: EuroSport. Live Streaming: EuroSport Player.
USA: TV: ESPN. Live streaming: Watch ESPN.
Canada: TV: CTV and TSN. Live Streaming: TSN TV.
China: TV: Beijing TV, LeTV Sports, Jiangsu TV.
