Prepare yourself people! Friday and the Men’s semifinals should be highly entertaining

(1) Novak Djokovic v (21) Richard Gasquet

Richard Gasquet, the surprising semifinalist of the four, made sure that the top 4 players won’t be going against each other in the semis. He took out the Roland Garros Champion Stan Wawrinka in an epic 5 set battle which concluded with 11-9 score in the final set.

The French is the only remaining of the 4 that doesn’t have a Grand Slam Title next to his resume

“I’m the worst,” Gasquet said with a smirk, “when you see Federer, Djokovic and Murray and me.”

This will be Richard’s 3-rd Semifinal in his career and he had to sig deep to achieve it. Once up a break on Stan and serving for the match at 5-3 things turned 360 degrees in no time with the Swiss broke back and won his serve for 5-all.

“It was very tough when I served at 5-3 and I got frustrated after that, but I tried to fight, fight and the last game was incredible,” Gasquet said. “It’s a great match for me. It would have been really difficult for me to lose after being up 5-3. It’s wonderful for me.”

Drama unfolded later with Gasquet having to save break point at 9-9 and then some mishits by Stan while on serve pushed the score to 0-40 and a triple match point. Wawrinka saved 2 but a backhand at 30-40 went a meter long and that ended match.

His mental solidity has never been a strength, but somehow he got it through and played clutch after missed opportunities. Even Novak acknowledged the high quality of the match and especially their one handed backhands

“It was great to watch them go backhand-to-backhand today,” said Djokovic, who is 11-1 against Gasquet. “Some great points, great exchanges.”

Djokovic leads the h2h 12-1 with the only loss coming in China 8 years ago.

He was clinical in his QF win in a repeat from last year against Marin Cilic and took the Croat out in straight sets with 1 break in each set 6-4,6-4,6-4.

He didn’t face a break point and was in control from start to finish just a day after he escaped the fierce hitting Kevin Anderson. He has been smooth on serve and committing only 8 double faults in the entire tournament.

“It’s a great effort from Richard to win against Stan, who is in a terrific form, and five sets,” said the world No1. “The biggest difference with Richard now, maybe comparing to the last couple of years, is his fitness. He has improved a lot. I heard he worked hard to get himself really fit and ready to go the distance, and it’s paying off.”

(3) Andy Murray v (2) Roger Federer

Blockbuster semifinal to say the least where 7 time Wimbledon Champion Roger Federer takes on the 2013 champion and local hope for another title Andy Murray

They ran into each other on Wednesday morning just before going on separate courts for practice

“We weren’t chatting about anything. It was just, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ Nothing interesting,” Murray recounted. “We get on well. But obviously, on Friday — different story.”

Andy went through very talented but fatigued Vasek Pospisil in the last round in straight sets, where it was evident that once the Scot gets into a rhythm he is very tough to beat in longer rallies. The Canadian tried to be aggressive and to pressure as much as he could but was just no match for the British player…

Vasek was sanctioned because of delay of game as he was exceeding the 25 second limit, but that calls came from the chair umpire in unfortunate moments, while down in the games he was serving and disrupt his rhythm.

“I hope I get good support on Friday,” he said. “It’s been the case throughout the whole event and every year that I played here. Roger’s extremely popular everywhere he goes, so it might not be as partisan a crowd or atmosphere as some matches that I play here. But it will still be an excellent atmosphere. I’ll still get a boost from the crowd, I’m sure.”

Asked about how much time does he thinks Roger will continue to play – “I have no idea how long he can keep competing at the top level. No one knows. It could be three, four years at the rate he’s going just now, if he wants to continue or not. The reasons he’s still at the top is he has a pretty efficient game style and he’s quite loose on the court. It’s very impressive that he’s managed to stay at the top of the game for so long, considering how long he’s been at the top and how many matches he’s played. He’s won over a thousand matches and played over 1,200 matches. That’s a lot of tennis.”

Federer made a light work of Gilles Simon and took the Frenchman out 6-3,7-5,6-2 despite he lost his serve for the first time in 116 service games.

“I played a very solid last year or so, especially on grass. It’s been a great streak. Now it’s crunch time. It goes to show what I’m doing off the baseline on my serve, or serve-volleying. The way I’m hitting it and placing it seems to work, especially on grass.”

“I still feel like I’m fresh,” Federer said post-quarterfinals match via Wimbledon.com.” “I’ve got energy left in the tank for hopefully a great match with Andy.”

This match vs Andy will feel like a reunion from 2012 when Roger won the title here, last Grand Slam he got his hands on, and Murray won the Olympic gold medal couple of months later.

Roger leads the h2h 12-11 with matches tied 1-1 on Grass,and with the way The Swiss is hitting his inside out forehand and shortens the points on the net Murray needs to have his return near his absolute best to test and resolve him in what seems to be a classic in the making.