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Federer vs Djokovic in marquee semifinal
WIMBLEDON: With "Murray Mania" gripping Britain, it's the other men's semifinal at Wimbledon that has many tennis fans anticipating a griping matchup on Friday afternoon.
Six-time champion Roger Federer and last year's winner Novak Djokovic will face each other on the grass of Wimbledon for the first time — in their 27th head-to-head meeting.
"It is interesting that this is our first grass-court match. I'm looking forward to it," said Federer, who can win a record-equaling seventh Wimbledon title after losing in the quarterfinals the past two years. "I haven't put too much thought into it, to be quite honest, yet. I'm just happy that I'm around further than I've been the last couple years."
The 30-year-old Federer already owns the most major tennis titles with 16. He completed a career Grand Slam in 2009 by winning the French Open. But his last major came more than two years ago, at the 2010 Australian Open.
A win over Djokovic on Friday, and another in Sunday's final, would put Federer back at the top of the game as the No. 1-ranked player. Two more wins at the All England Club also would equal Pete Sampras' seven Wimbledon titles and tie the American's record for weeks spent at No. 1 with 286.
"I know it's possible. I know I'm playing really well," said Federer, who is 14-12 against Djokovic overall but 1-6 since the start of 2011. "I am aware things are going to get complicated in the next match. I better prepare well, because it's going to be a tough match."
Tough may be putting it mildly. The top-ranked Djokovic has won four of the last six major titles, and lost to Rafael Nadal in the French Open final last month.
Those kinds of statistics sound a lot like what Federer did year after year not so ago.
"I'm not trying to defend my title here. I'm trying to fight for it as every other player who is in last four of the men's side," said Djokovic, who beat Federer in the French Open semifinals last month. "So my mindset is very positive."
After years of playing in the shadows of Federer and Nadal, it's Djokovic that is now the man to beat. The 25-year-old Serb is 43-2 at Grand Slam matches in the past two years.
Very Federer-like numbers.
"He has a lot of respect from me, from all the players. There is no question about it," Djokovic said of Federer. "But we are all rivals, we are all opponents. I don't think about his history or his success or whatever too much when I'm on the court. I just want to win that match."
The other semifinal certainly has Britain all agog. Andy Murray reached the semifinals for the fourth straight year, and with Nadal already out of the tournament, the public is expecting more from him than ever before.
"Subconsciously, I'm probably extremely stressed out right now, but I try not to feel it," said Murray, who's from Scotland. "Then, yeah, when the tournament's done there's normally a pretty big release of that. I just don't want to be on the court for a few weeks."--(AP)
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