Sports Blog 12/07/2018: Wimbledon Preview – Men’s Semi-Finals, Friday 13th July 2018

With Federer fumbling his lines in the quarter-finals, we’re guaranteed a first time Wimbledon finalist. But who will it be?

It’s safe to say no-one really saw Wednesday’s result coming. By taking the first 2 sets against Kevin Anderson Federer equalled his own record of 34 consecutive sets won at Wimbledon, and looked certain to reach his 13th semi-final at SW19. There’d been nary a blip en route to the quarters, with the Swiss supremo strutting past Dusan Lajovic, Lukas Lacko, Jan-Lennard Struff and Adrian Mannarino without really breaking a sweat.



Anderson, meanwhile, had already dropped sets against Andreas Seppi and Gael Monfils, and was even pushed to a match point by Federer during the 3rd set. Yet the South African pulled off a remarkable comeback from there, pulling off a 13-11 victory in the final set having won the third and fourth 7-5 and 6-4 respectively. That sent the world no. 8 to his first ever Wimbledon semi-final, and only second Grand Slam semi full stop.

His opponent is John Isner, whose own quarter-final win was a tad less dramatic than Anderson’s; having narrowly lost the opening set to Milos Raonic, the world no. 9 took the next 3, booking his debut appearance in a Wimbledon – and Grand Slam – final four in the process.

The pair seem pretty evenly matched heading into Centre Court on Friday, with Spreadex offering a choice Anderson/Isner Match Supremacy spread of -1.5-1.5. Yet bolstered by his win over Federer Anderson perhaps has the edge, at a binary 25:0 spread of 12-13.5 to Isner’s 11.5-13.

The other semi-final’s players are far more familiar with this stage of the competition, as Novak Djokovic takes on Rafael Nadal. After a rough 18 months Djokovic is finally back in a Grand Slam top four, beating Tennys Sandgren, Horacio Zeballos, Kyle Edmund, Karen Abgarovich Khachanov and Kei Nishikori to get there.



Like Federer, Nadal hadn’t dropped a set going into the quarter-finals, only to be forced all the way by Juan Martin del Potro. Unlike his old rival, the Spaniard succeeded, triumphing over his Argentina opponent to secure his first Wimbledon semi since 2011.

Unsurprisingly, Djokovic and Nadal are the preferred side of the draw, at 7/5 and 6/4 to win the competition respectively, against Anderson’s 6/1 and Isner’s 13/2. As for the second semi-final itself, the Serbian ace looks like he’ll squeak it, with Spreadex offering a Djokovic/Nadal Match Supremacy spread of 0-3.