The semifinal on the top half of the men's singles draw at Wimbledon 2017 has been set. Pre-tournament, it looked it might have been Rafael Nadal against Andy Murray in that section of the draw. However, those two members of the Big Four were shut out of the semifinals. Instead, the semifinal on the top half of the draw will feature Sam Querrey of the United States against Croatia's Marin Cilic.
Cilic beat Muller in 5 sets
Cilic advanced to the semifinals through Gilles Muller in the quarterfinals. Their match featured many competitive sets, however, Cilic often had the goods late in the individual sets.
Perhaps Muller, while playing Cilic, faced energy shortages when the going got tough. The man from Luxembourg did play a marathon match against Nadal in the previous round. That may have served to fatigue Muller against Cilic in the quarters. The one-time Grand Slam champion certainly appeared to be stronger in the 5th set, winning it 6-1.
Querrey upset Andy Murray
Querrey, like Muller, pulled off a significant upset at Wimbledon 2017. For the second year in a row, he eliminated the World No. 1 and the defending champion. In 2016, that man was Novak Djokovic. In 2017, Querrey defeated Andy Murray. The development means that Wimbledon 2017 will feature a first-time finalist. In fact, before Wednesday neither Querrey nor Cilic had even made the semifinals at Wimbledon.
Between Querrey and Cilic, it is clearly the latter that is the bigger match player. The Croat may be in his first Wimbledon semifinal, but he has won his quarter of other Grand Slam draws. In 2010 he made the Australian Open semifinals. Meanwhile in 2014 and 2015 Cilic won his quarter at the US Open. In the former year, he won the entire tournament and that shows that he is a much more of a player for the big-time matches than Querrey.
Conversely, the American veteran is not only into his very first semifinal at Wimbledon 2017, but he is into his first semifinal outright for all majors. That is despite the fact that Querrey made his Grand Slam debut way back at the 2006 US Open.
Querrey, despite likely being considered an underdog against Cilic, will be looking to put American men's tennis back on the map.
American men have not enjoyed any kind of success in the post-Roddick era of Grand Slam tournaments. Part of the lack of success can be attributed to John Isner's shortcoming in majors. Despite playing well in the best-of-three format, the big server has rarely made the quarters in best-of-five tournaments. Roddick's appearance in the 2009 Wimbledon final is the last time an American male made a men's final. While that appearance may be fresh on the minds of elder tennis fans, it was a full eight years ago now. Querrey will be looking to end a major drought for his country, however, he's staring at a much more talented player that has won late-round Grand Slam matches before.
