Day 6: Semi-Final Part 1 Queen's

A tale of Queen's 2017 is a tale of Kings. The reigning king was deposed

early, his most likely successors felt too, and so just four remain.

-- fell. Two have been king before, the Croat Marin Cilic in 2012. The

Bulgarian record image of in 2014. How they would love to see a

restoration of their respective monarchies. Two are men who would be

King, a grand Duke of Luxembourg, Gilles Muller. And a Spanish

aristocrat, Feliciano Lopez who came so close to Coronation three years

ago. The tournament's very own Game of

Thrones continues today. Four pretenders, but the Queen's crown

can rest on just one man's head. So, today, will stay on course and

left that famous trophy? It is not the semifinals we would have

predicted at the start of the Championships but they are two

interesting matchups just the same, some very big serving expected.

Everyone here is arriving looking forward to another enjoyable day at

the Aegon Championships, even though the weather has turned a little

cooler. But we have a lot to look forward to. I say some big serving

expected because three of the semifinalists, Cilic, Muller and

Lopez have yet to have their serves broken this week, in the first match

Cilic has more big match experience than his opponent but Muller is

playing the best tennis of his career, his confidence high. In the

second semifinal both players will be match fit because Dimitrov came

from a break of serve down yesterday afternoon and Feliciano Lopez save a

match point victory over Tomas Berdych. Those matches we are

looking forward to and to and John and Andrew are with me. Two former

champions here but the two players Muller and Lopez are the players in

form on the service aren't they? Yes, obviously the semifinals we

have is not what we expected but the one thing we can certainly say is we

have four superb grass court players are here and the four players left

our experts on this surface and we have seen some wonderful tennis from

them already. Muller has been superb, he has managed his game so

well and improved so much, won two tournaments and books world class on

this surface. Feliciano Lopez, he was born to play on grass and his

match against Berdych, just came through, he is a threat to anybody,

here, Wimbledon, anywhere on grass and it is two tough matches today.

Lopez, finalist in stud gut and Muller winning or so, they come in

already two winning on this surface -- Stuttgart. They start in

Australia early in the season and they go indoors and there is always

a couple of matches where there is a transition phase and they go on to

the clay and then from the clay onto the grass so the first couple of

matches of those transition tournaments command this is one of

them, you feel like the big players are slightly more vulnerable than

they would be when they have their feet slightly more under them. These

guys, all of them came in ready to play and winning is a habit, playing

becomes an instinct on the big points. Particularly with Muller I

have noticed it here. 34 years of age, he won his first two

tournaments this year, won last week with his two sons at his side and he

has everything to play for. The way he has played the big points so far

this week it's like it's natural, he's just selecting whatever shot he

wants to play and he is picking the right shot to play so there is

belief for you. We have two great semifinals despite the fact we have

not got Andy Murray. I know. You mention the Muller's little boys and

they watched him in Sydney as well. He said they are so into tennis now

that when he won last week they sat and watched the final, his wife had

to watch it and the kids wanted to go and play tennis, this is tennis

all day long, she is getting tennised out. You would never think

at the start of your career that you would have your kids watching you

but these guys are getting older. The average age of these guys is

getting on, Dimitrov is the Young-gwon and he's my favourite. He

is the favourite as well. Cilic is the highest ranked player and has

looked so good, hasn't faced a break point this week. He is

extraordinary, serving has been so good. I have noticed this week how

much closer to the baseline he is standing in a lot of the rallies.

Sometimes he is pushed back but it's almost like right on the baseline

and sometimes edging inside and taking the ball on early, cutting

off the angle and not giving his opponents time to breathe. He has

been coming in a lot this week, is that because of his coach Jonas

Bjorkman, I'm sure he has had an input. I've been impressed with his

play. He said he has changed his training, he feels fitter and is

more confident with his body. I was behind him the other day, not that I

was stalking him, I was behind him and he was massive and blocking out

the sun and looks like a feed, up top he looks like he has extra

muscle and the way he took his backhand was a bit more open faced

than I remember and his service is different. He's never been a man who

is afraid to make one or two adjustments and with Jonas Bjorkman

on board I think it is a wonderful pairing and he won a slam before.

Did I say two days ago I didn't see him as a potential Wimbledon

Championships Mac nonsense! In the other semifinal please two know each

other. They have met a number of times and back in 2014 this was when

Dimitrov got his revenge because Lopez had beaten him a couple of

years before that. But this was the match point. Lopez had had a match

point in this match himself. This is a player who every time he plays

here because he was given a wildcard all those years ago, and it's an

old-fashioned arena and the crowd know what they are looking at Andy

Love is grass court sun represents tremendous tradition here, he loves

it here and is not afraid to say so right away as soon as he arrives. He

says, I love it, and from the word go he's been striking the ball

superbly. That relationship happens to be over, he has another glamorous

one on the go at the moment. He has that sort of star status. I like

watching him play for that. He brings something to the court that

you cannot take your eyes off and yesterday when he was a break down

in the third set he had to fight against Medvedev and you never would

have thought that because Medvedev had a bad shoulder at the beginning.

I love it when Dimitrov is forced to dig deep but he will have to today

if Lopez is walking all right because that was a big match

yesterday. It was a big match and a long match and he had to save break

point but eventually got to match point and I think we can see at the

end of this, he is exhausted, we will stay on these pictures because

there is no big celebration, just getting it over with, it is a long

match. I have to say he is in amazing physical shape and he works

very hard, you can see he looks exhausted but he will be ready to go

today. His game is so fluid on grass, his serve is so magnificent.

He is economical the way he plays, he knows what he must do and does so

well. I don't think tiredness will effect from today, semifinal of

Queen's, big tournament and he will be ready today. He does look

exhausted because he got to the final last week. It's been a lot of

matches. I believe he had three 3-set win is there before losing to

Lucas Pouille who is another one to watch out for although he's not here

this week, excellent French player, 15 in the world. Whether Lopez is in

perfect physical shape today I have my doubts about that but we will

see. You know how to manage your body and mind when you've been on

the tour that long and there is another one, 35 years of age, wants

to be here and wants to play everyday and I have huge respect for

Feliciano Lopez who is playing the best tennis his career. Absolutely,

he is and he will get lots of cheap points on his big serve, won't he?

Monster serve. Moving away from Queen's Club, the big news yesterday

was the British number three Dan Evans failed a drugs test having

tested positive for cocaine in April. He said in a press conference

yesterday I made a mistake and I must face up to it. It's really

important that you know that this was taken out of competition and in

a context completely unrelated to tennis. I've let a lot of people

down, my family, my coach, my team, sponsors, British tennis and my

fans. We have also had a response from the Lawn Tennis Association

performance director Simon Timson who said we are very disappointed at

the news that Dan Evans has tested positive for a recreational

substance. We absolutely condemn any form of drug-taking and will support

the process which needs to take place. We are in touch with Dan and

will offer appropriate guidance, support and education to him on how

best to address the issues that he now faces. Shocking news, Andrew.

Disappointing news, and a huge mistake. We are a couple of miles

away from the Grenfell Tower which was a tragedy. This is not a tragedy

in that sense, this is a personal tragedy, and he's let himself down,

it is a mistake. There will be no shortage of people who will condemn

him totally for this. The bottom line is he has thrown away his

career which is a great sadness because he went from somebody who

always had talent who couldn't find the performances, to somebody who

was actually pretty dedicated and had gone up to 50 in the world and

was beginning to produce his best tennis, these were his best earning

years, when he was creating his reputation, which will take him

throughout the rest of his life and he has shattered all of that. I hope

we can all understand that whilst we condemn and say he has acted

foolishly and stupidly and he is an idiot, all of these things, I hope

we give him a chance after he has served this ban. A chance to come

back. Matas be honest, this drug is extremely prevalent, I don't

consider it as performance-enhancing drug in a tennis sense, I like the

way he apologised, he came out and make no excuses. I don't have any

reason to doubt that he was genuine and sincere in what he said. Whether

he will want to come back and play tennis, or whether he will be able

to after what will probably be a two-year ban and this could be the

end of his career. I still like him and I still think he did a pretty

good job to get to where he did in a world, part of the winning Davis Cup

team and I wish him well. I will condemn him and say he is silly but

I hope he is OK for the next year or two. A Davis Cup star you must take

responsibility, you are a role and must set an example. Absolutely, and

he is going to get banned and torn apart in the press, which is already

happening and he must take that on his shoulders and it's going to be a

hard time for him. In theory they are saying he could be banned for

four years under ITF rules but the tennis Andy guidelines is possible

-- but under other guidelines it could be two years. They could be 15

months or 18 months. If that's the case he might still have a chance.

If it is two years upwards his career is over. To be honest I'm not

so concerned about that. He has made huge mistakes in that area, he's had

plenty of chances in many other ways. You keep thinking, why won't

you learn? Now he's taken the ultimate with the drugs and been

found. I'm concerned about him health-wise, all of the other side,

tennis, OK, this is his career but it's what he does off the court that

I'm concerned about and he needs guidance in that area. It's his

health and the rest of his life that is of most concern to me because he

has to be careful. We have seen in the past that he does have this

tendency to go off and do other stuff. He's got to be careful.

Particularly after his run at the Australian Open and playing so well,

getting big sponsorship, this will be a big blow, sponsors will go

away, time off, how do you motivate yourself and keep fit and healthy

and come back strong after a year or so? I have no idea whether he will

have any desire to do that and to climb the rankings again, to try and

put together his reputation as well as his game. John may have a good

point about his long-term health because cocaine is not good for you,

and the fact you are in a position to have access to it and be stupid

enough to take it, for all these reasons, health comes first. There

were three tournaments he played in April? Monte Carlo, he was tested in

Barcelona. He has made a mistake. A lot of people do a lot of days. That

drug is way too prevalent in society generally. This guy is a pretty

lively character. Like a moth to the flame he's been drawn. His health

and secondly we will see about his tennis but his reputation is

shattered and that's difficult to put together again. Think about

travelling the world playing tennis, it's gone. You don't appreciate it

until it's gone sometimes. With a bit of luck he will stick around and

we will give him a chance to come back and we will welcome him back

into the fold once again but for the moment it's over. Hopefully, a

lesson learned. Back to the Aegon Championships and before we look

ahead to the two semi-finals let's look back with John Inverdale

because it's been quite an eventful week, one shot after another.

If you're dazed an confused by the line-up for today's semi-finals,

rest assured, it's not just the heat.

Rafa and DelPo were no-shows. On Monday, the very first day, Kyrgios

not quite famous enough yet to be known just by his Christian name,

was down and ultimately out. So that was the end of the Australian

challenge. But Andy, the world number one, our world number one,

was playing an Aussie ranked 90 in the world. A landslide victory was a

certainty, but like other landslide certainties... And he does it with

an ace. What a win for Jordan Thompson. But what a shock. One of

the greatest upsets that Queen's has seen, the man that's ruled this

place so many times, five times a champion, the world number one, the

Wimbledon champion, the Olympic champion and he's gone at the hands

of Jordan Thompson, the lucky loser, the world number 90. Last year's

finalist, Raonic, teetering on the almost nearly famous enough to be

called Milos did this. Back and winning again at the highest level.

And Stan, exhausted from his exertions in Paris, we've all felt

like that sometimes Stan, succumbed to a Queen's veteran. That was all

on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, big Joe was cut down to size. Maybe it's

just the transition to grass but even so, since then, some semblance

of normality's been restored. Two former champions have made it

through. If at the start of the week you put money on Muller, Cilic,

Dimitrov and Lopez being in the semis, you musts be be holding a

betting slip that predicted Brexit, Trump, a hung Parliament and a Led

Zeppelin reunion at Glastonbury tonight!

The bad news is... You are right, no Led Zeppelin

playing at Glastonbury tonight! But the good news is that we have Muller

taking on Cilic here and a few moments ago the players made their

way on to court and they are being led on to court by two very lucky

youngsters, Lucas Hill and Sam Sharlon, both being treated at the

Mars ten Centre in Sutton and they are representing the charity today.

Lucas, whoa is with Marin Cilic was diagnosed with stage four

neuroblastoma in 2014 and he's received chemotherapy radiotherapy

and other therapies. Sam in Woking in Surrey was five when diagnosed

with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in December 2013. So they've made

their way on to the court and it looks like they're very happy to

stay there actually. Go on, are you going to take the towel? No. What a

lovely moment from them. A couple of lovely proud mums in the audience

watching on as well. But that was just a few moments ago. No, he

doesn't want to move, look. The players get ready for the coin toss

now and let's hear from the man in form at the moment, the highest seed

left in the Championships, Marin Cilic.

This is my opponent's favourite surface and his most favourite time

of the year. He played well last year. He came through the semis,

always extremely dangerous with his serve. I don't think many things are

going to divide us tomorrow so I'm just hoping to keep my cool and

continue to serve and play well. 17 career titles, one of those came on

grass here in 2012. The finals the following year. What would it mean

to you to be back in the final here on Sunday? It would mean a lot in

terms of confidence and in terms of also dealing with that match win in

preparation for Wimbledon and also confirming that my form is extremely

high and that I'm read dito do big things. We did that lovely build-up,

we saw the lovely walk-on, the players have made their way on and

then, after a wonderful week of weather, we have our first rain of

the hundredship. So finally, the ground staff are making their way

on. We haven't seen them all week. They have just been mowing the lawn

and how disappointing for the all the mans, they have had a lovely

lunch, just come in to watch some tennis and away they go again. Won't

be gone for too long judging by the pace at which they're all going

about their business, just a gentle jog. They haven't been doing

anything all week, they've forgotten how to do it. They seem to be calm

about the way they're going about it. There's Graham. And the courts

are magnificent. Graham and the team do the most incredible job. Well

done! They've been the stars of the show so far. But they really have,

these courts are absolutely perfect and Graham's made that decision, he

never likes to cover the courts unless he has to, unless he thinks

it's going to blow over quickly so this isn't a great sight. Within

they get a bit of water on the surface, they want the breeze just

to go across to take that away before they put the cover on, that

way it's a bit quicker until we can play again, but just a judgment call

from him. Doesn't feel like it's going to be more than maybe 15 or 20

minutes. He prepares a very different court than the courts

prepared by Neil and the team at Wimbledon. There's more tennis over

a longer period of time there. So they have to prepare a slightly

different court in terms of how much play it's going to get on it. This

one they go for it, it's perhaps more of a Formula One court, you

only need to get seven days play out of it! Wimbledon is 13 days play

with the rest day for it to recover. Wimbledon had to change the grass or

the technique lches Look what we've learnt over the years. People say I

thought the grass was fine, just mow it and there are so many different

styles. This week it's been eventful. We have seen to many

shots. We always thought that after the French, having that extra week

going in, would sort of, this wouldn't happen. That's what I

thought. I thought the extra week - I've said it before - I said we are

going to get less and less shots on the grass because the top mayors

who've had the extra week which we have cried out for for so many years

is the most ridiculous part of the tennis calendar to have the Grand

Slam two weeks apart, one from clay going on to grass. I still think

that's the toughest challenge in tennis for men or women to win the

French Open on clay, completely different surface. Two weeks later

in the old days, then having to win on grass. Then it was tough but at

least now there's an extra week but it's not enough. How nice that, with

the greatest of respect to Raonic and Wawrinka who we see week in week

out, how nice to see Medvedev. A young player. Couldn't read his

emotions yesterday but his tennis spoke quickly for him. On the grass

it's so nice to see the youngsters coming through. Old Dennis will be

around for a while. He is one seriously exciting player. I don't

mind upsets. This is not a bad semi-final line-up. The cream has

risen at the top, the grass court talent out there is undeniable but

it's great to see so many great players. Murray went out in the

first round, Jordan Thompson not a great result but he tweeted a

picture today with all his Olympic medals. He is surrounded by all of

Sofia's toys with a big smile on his face. Good, I haven't seen that one

yet. Here it is, look. There you go, an upsetting build-up!

Life seems wonderful. Delighted for him. You have to take the losses,

you move on and go away, he said he's going to play a couple of

exhibition matches next week and, you know, it's not a competition but

it's still a match situation and hopefully he'll be hitting the

forehand a little better than he did in his first round here. He's been

doing a lot of drills with Ivan Lendl. I said the other day, I saw

them taking two boxes to Lendl's house. Forehands and serve all day

long until he gets his game. He got to the finals one year when he lost

early on. He's a pro, a hard pronow, he knows how to play. I hope he

doesn't get to play one of these youngsters that we have seen in the

first couple of rounds at Wimbledon because it could be dangerous. If he

gets a decent draw and works his way through a couple of rounds, after

that he'll be fine. Also, when you look at the dangerous floaters that

there are in the draw, you have mentioned the youngsters ranked

outside the top 50, Tommy Haas as well. 39 years of age. He beat

Federer. I didn't realise. Federer wins the Australian Open after not

playing for six months then Tommy beating Roger was phenomenal. So it

feels wide-open at the moment but it wouldn't surprise me at all if

Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Murray get through to the semi-finals because,

you know what, in the big tournaments, the big guys come

through so much of the time. To be honest, what I really want to see,

Andy doing well, but I just want to see Federer playing together again.

He's putting together a sporting story this year which is beyond

belief. As well as winning the Australian, the first of the slams,

Nadal wins, two oldies, he also won Indian Wells in Miami. It's

extraordinary. Those are the two biggest ones at the start of the

year, then he says he's not going to play on clay at all. Talk about

managing your schedule. This is a man not worried about his ranking,

he wants to win the big event and still has appetite for it. To see

Roger play for me is still a thrill. The way he played in Australia, he

was attacking more, that's what you need to do on a grass court. He

wants to keep the points shorter and be more aggressive. To me, the

Australian Open, it was a joke how good he was. For me the best shot

was the back hand. His high back hand. I've never seen him hit that

that way. Nadal was getting that ball up high and in the old days,

he'd struggle on that shot. He was hitting clean winners off the line

off ridiculous shots. You look at that and think, wow he's got that

shot as well. Federer's always said, there is not a day goes by where I

think I can learn still from the game. That is what you love about

it. You think he's perfect, he doesn't think so and that drives him

to keep playing. He loves the game. I spoke to him last week and he

said, I don't fear losing, I just love winning. You have spoken to

everybody! Genuinely that is a good job, I hope you like it. I

thoroughly appreciate it. Billie Jean King, John McEnRoy Virginia

Wade, Andy at Wimbledon. If you see Rod play, it was just before

television got going that he was around, he was unbelievable. You

might have played him yourself... He was number one or two in world, I

played him in a tournament in America, those days there wasn't

much prize money around, I needed the money. I tripped down the stairs

an hour before I played him and my ankle was blown up and I had to get

an extra pair of shoes, a larger pair, to get my sock on. I went up

to Rod and said, look, I need this money and I can't walk. He said, can

you be nice to me in the first round. I was talking to the best. He

said, don't worry, leave it to me. It was 6-3, 6-3, the crowd didn't

know and I picked up my money. He's a gentleman. Who else would do that.

You lost some though. Oh, yes, he's not that nice! The good news outside

the window, a large round of applause because the ground staff

have made their way back, meaning the covers are coming off. Still a

few dark clouds around and a strong breeze blowing as well, so blowing

the clouds away and hopefully we'll have much better weather to bring

you in the two semi-finals today. Off they go. Great ground staff here

and they'll have this court up and running very soon indeed. We await

the players on court. We'll be back for that live. We are just going to

briefly look back to last night and a match that finished almost in

darkness here between Tomas Berdych and Feliciano Lopez.

Masters soothsayer you made me, but alas you haven't been paying

attention. Anything else you want to say?

Berdych is two points from the match, from his first semifinal at

Queen's. But Feliciano wants to be there too. He did get to the final

here three years ago, the Spaniard. What a fantastic return of serve,

the slider was bearing right in at his body and he somehow managed to

get his forehand on the ball. That was almost out of self-preservation.

Brilliant athleticism, it really was. Heaven knows what kind of spin

was on that ball when it hit Lopez's racket.

He went for it, he got it. And after two and a quarter hours Tomas

Berdych has match point. For a place in the last four at Queen's and a

semifinal against Grigor Dimitrov. He must just stand in the tramlines

and take the slider away. What a shot. By the skin of the skin

of his teeth Lopez got to that somehow. What a superb second serve

it was from Lopez. How Berdych got it back I've no idea. Too good.

He might have been worried fractionally as Berdych was hurtling

towards the ball but he couldn't quite get there. Server chance of

5-5. That is a magnificent shot from

Lopez. So much bite. The crowd, who have enjoyed this, have suddenly

sprung to life. As dusk descends at Queen's.

Once again Lopez just feathers it over the net catching Berdych

unawares. The way he shapes up to hit it it looks as if he's going to

hit it deep. That was a steely look from Lopez. That is the kind of look

at Andy Murray gives his box at times, you are not helping at all

and I'm doing this all by myself. Surely you jest.

Well, break here? Suddenly the energy that had

deserted Lopez is suddenly coursing through his veins again. At 1-1, 2-2

maybe you are thinking I need to conserve energy to get over the

finish line and now he knows he can cross the line on fumes. It is

everything to the fore. Suddenly, the first double fault of

the match from Tomas Berdych. Lopez decided it was now or never.

Took the initiative, chip and charge. For the first time in the

match. Here he goes, look. He knows. Two break points on the Berdych

serve from nowhere. Carmen down. -- calm down. One person not getting it

cited in all of this is -- getting excited in all of this is Tomas

Berdych. Will he do the same this time? Where

will Berdych serve? He went for it. The arm was out

instantly from the line judge. Berdych saying it's out. Lopez is

challenging the call and his arms are out saying, how did I miss that,

to himself. Wasn't the easiest passing shot in the world. If you

are going to call it out, call it out. It's in any way!

CHEERING Out of the blue. Feliciano Lopez has

a break that nobody saw coming, least of all that man. And there is

a real buzz around Centre Court now. Yes, and this match has turned on

its head from a somewhat predictable serve holding... Fest. Yes. We've

had two one half hours and most of the official floodlights have come

on. We did say two and a half hours ago this would be close and it might

go to three sets and it might be three very close sets and that is

exactly how things have panned out. 6-7, 7-6. And now the match is in

Feliciano Lopez's pounds. 18 aces so far in the match, six in this set,

four in the last game. Four more here will do nicely.

The photographer's lens eye on Lopez.

It is a roar from Lopez but this time it's a positive a roar after

the way he has been berating himself in this contest. That was a sort of

forced unforced error from Berdych and the Spaniard is two points from

victory now. But that most definitely was an unforced error. He

would love just to creep over the line. He doesn't want to have to do

it with ground strokes. Two first serves, por favor.

That's the first one. Muchas gracias. Feliciano Lopez with two

opportunities now to beat Tomas Berdych here in the quarterfinals at

Queen's and make it through to a semifinal tomorrow. We have a

sparrow. Is it a sparrow? Was that a sparrow? I'm told it was bigger than

a sparrow. Match point. UMPIRE: Game, set and match, Lopez. He's

done it. It seemed that the match was ebbing away from the Spaniard.

Somehow in the space of two or three points the match changed direction

180 degrees. The 35-year-old Spaniard Feliciano Lopez, who has

got a great smile and he is smiling now.

STUDIO: Great match, so competitive, the crowd loved it, I don't think

they would have made the tie-break if it had gone on, it was so dark.

Lopez guts sing it out, managing to change the game from 5-5. He's been

winning recently, he loves this service and he comes here, comes out

here and glides around the court and his serve and his touch, the match

point, how did he get that backhand? That ridiculous shot. He is classy

on this service and way better on this surface and his ranking,

always. And about ten spots minimum to his ranking when he comes on this

surface, he is so good. He will be on later on against Grigor Dimitrov

but I'm pleased to say they are back on court, it's Marin Cilic up

against Gilles Muller. Let's talk about Cilic. We talked about how he

keeps improving and looks to be playing his best tennis. He got the

big serve, of course. But he does back it up as well. He's still

learning about his game forced up when I was speaking to Bob Brett

four or five years ago. The years roll by. He was with Bob after Marin

had made it into the top ten for the first time and I remember him saying

he is quite a sensitive soul and started listening to people too much

when he got into the top ten, you've got to change this, do that, but of

course you should continue to do, you can add things you might need to

do which are little but keep doing what you're doing and don't change a

winning game plan, tinkered with one or two shots and lost confidence and

went back down the rankings again. You get the feeling this time he's

is therefore good. And he is looking to push on from here. There is no

reason to think that he has not got three, four, five more years at the

highest level. As I said before with Jonas Bjorkman on board and knowing

your game and becoming an adult and growing up, you get to understand

how to get the best performance out of yourself week in and week out.

He's interesting. His game has changed. If you look at pictures of

him ten, 12 years ago, or more, his style is different now. The ball

toss is in the same place the whole time which makes it more difficult

for someone to read, he doesn't throw it over his head all the time,

it is a quicker arc through the ball, a number of things he does

extremely well now and he's improved since he won the US Open. Looking

back at him throughout this week he's got such power. He has not

faced a break point yet. Witty, keep talking about the serve, big heavy

game. -- we keep talking about. Very heavy and he's always looking to

attack, further in the baseline than he used to be. There is that Agassi

position. There it is again, and the forehand is awesome. And how quick

he is moving in. Hard to read on his shots. He can go both ways no

problems on the forehand. I like his stance with where he is, moved back

here, didn't have much choice on that one, but generally speaking

he's right on top of the baseline taking the ball early and putting

pressure on his opponent the whole time. He doesn't take it early

compared to Jonas Bjorkman, his coach. Are a half-volley your serve

and follow it in, you would look up and he would be smiling at you

volley and when you were up one foot and a half of the baseline. What a

story this is, he had an won Eto'o title until this year in Sydney and

then last week and here he is in the semifinals. -- tour title. He said

he reached the semis in 2004 but it's taken this long. He had a bad

injury about five years ago and took a long time off and said he got

himself really physically fit and now he trusts his body.

You mentioned his two victories this year, one of them was in Sydney

where he beat Dan Evans. It was his seventh, ATP final and, you know,

you can get a little bit funny about that and start thinking it's never

going to two your way and suddenly the clouds part. You don't know what

you've got. Dan is going to find this out now, you don't know what

it's got until it's gone. When you have an injury and you sit out, you

realise how much you love the game. Delgado deserves a great deal of

credit for getting to understand that and for adding to his game.

Andrew you are going to have to make a move because he's sitting down and

you are going to be picking up from me in about a minutes' time. This

match-up, the big serves, you are going to see some long sets

tie-breaks heading our way do you think? You would have thought so.

Can't imagine there not being at least one tie-breaker here. Muller,

the way he's managed his serves, it will be interesting to see how Cilic

tries to anticipate, read it. Very difficult to read. He throws the

ball in the same place, he can hit that swerver out wide. He can go

into the body, down the middle, he can kick it. He has such variation.

Interesting to see what Cilic does when he returns the ball. He has to

do something because when Muller gets in a rhythm, he's brutal. He

certainly is. Let's find out if an true's made it alongside Peter

Fleming. No problem, Sue! Ready for the semi-final after a

slight delay from rain which we hope will not return.

That had to be a bit of a bad bounce.

Clearly feeling very, very good on serve. In his first two rounds, he

was unbelievable. Points won. Look at the accuracy. Not too many false

serves. A good mix. Can y a time when they

dropped serve. It's extraordinary. No.

Forehand shot best do you think? Forehand, yes.

Unable to recover Marin Cilic. A bit of rain before this match, a few

minutes delay. Gave us a chance to watch sombre ditch v Lopez -- some B

erdychv Lopez. Marin Cilic has a busy day. On

schedule today for Murray and Soares.

He's playing with clarity. Interesting whether you ask if his

forehand is the best shot. I thought the back hand was the best a couple

of years ago. He always has asserted that he prefers to hit forehand.

Over the last year or two, his forehand's become a lot more

consistent and it's now a very reliable weapon.

Wonderful tennis Marin Cilic is playing. I really can see the way

he's approaching this. You can see the poise coming forward, it's a low

position, the willingness to attack, to be quick with the feet. This is

everything that Bjorkman was. Seems very settled in that relationship.

If you want to get in touch with us, you can do and we'll get to them

later in the programme. He must know he is on. The camera

was right in front of him. It's like an R2-D2 that camera.

Muller tosses the ball to the left and looks like he'll slice every

ball. Very neatly done. So little drama on

these shots now. Not much to go wrong: Yes. He's become a lot more

aware of when an opportunity might arise. There was no risks taken at

all. Played very well across all surfaces

this year. One of only two players able to reach ATP Tour finals this

season on hard courts, on clay and on grass as well.

Lucas Pouille also achieved that feat, he was a finalist in Estoril

as well which surprised some people. His ground strokes very good and his

serve works on every surface, naturally.

First serve points won 7/7 bombers Cilic and for Merlo two

seven out of seven. Interesting hearing you talk about Cilic in the

old days, I never understood why he tossed the ball so far behind his

head, six with that sort of leverage, you've got to hit some big

serves and try and winsome points on serve, Goran Ivanisevic try to get

that into his point and five months later he won the US Open. He has a

fast racket head now, the ball gets up there and he hits it. Nobody

threw it up and hit it any quicker than Goran Ivanisevic.

Good to see him winning some doubles as well. Matkowski against Jamie

Murray and Bruno Soares later on. Teaming for the first time. Often

when players changed to a new surface, especially grass after

playing almost a third of the season or a quarter of the season on clay.

They like to get some matches on the surface and field the ball off the

surface, particularly on the return, feel the ball coming onto the racket

and how it is reacting to vigorous. Absolutely. It's a great plan. --

reacting to the grass. I was amazed to hear you didn't win this

competition with your doubles. It is higher bouncing, this Court,

generally harder surface. Higher bouncing and faster. Or at least it

was. The Centre Court is quite slow, it's not such a quick court. That

suited my game better. I think the groundsman keeps the moisture

content a little higher earlier in the tournament than Mr Kynton has to

on this surface, seven days play on this surface. I think it has

something to do with the undersoil. I feel it is just a bit harder here.

Areas that willingness to come forward. -- there is that

willingness to come forward. There it is, that's the ball toss

well out of the left and yet still able to pump it flat out wide into

the corner, and as a return you are moving the other way because you

expect the slice. UMPIRE: Mr Muller is challenging the

call. The ball was called out. There was good power on the serve

that it wasn't directed quite well enough, went right into the hitting

zone of Cilic and he returned it nicely, almost to the baseline.

It just shows how confident Muller is, break point down and he thumped

that. Cilic achieves what nobody else has

done this week, breaking the Gilles Muller serve, clean pass. Explosive

backhand down the line, Muller coming in, albeit on his weaker

side. He doesn't miss too many backhands. Exactly. It appeared as

though Muller wasn't expecting it dumb at a crosscourt passing shot

because he wasn't covering the down the line one at all.

He is sharp, right on top of that ball. Could be the final.

Still only lost the one point on serve, second serve. Impressive

tennis indeed. Second semifinal, Lopez versus Dimitrov, interesting

to see how Dimitrov gets the ball past Lopez when he comes into the

net, which he will surely do on the backhand slice. Let's look at who is

in and around today. Hopefully we can recognise one or two people. Not

quite the weather we had at the start of the week but that is a

blessing relief, it was well over 100 inside this poll. It was really

hot. Cilic, of the one point that he lost it was a double fault so he

hasn't actually lost a point. It is this low movement, look how low he

is getting, this is the essence of grass court tennis, for a guy who is

six feet five inches, to move in like this, rapid face coming back

and then coming through again, the minor adjustments he has never been

afraid to make. At six he gets around the court so well. -- six

foot and six inches. It is unlucky on the net cord.

Taking it out wide on the angle. I'm really impressed with how

aggressive Cilic has been on his forehand this week. He clearly has a

lot of belief in that shot now. Hasn't quite settled in. Under

pressure though, it must be said. You have to defend such width at the

baseline with the Muller serve. He can drag you out wide to the left.

Yet still going down the middle on this side.

Had time to lean into that one. Hits that slice with a bit more power

than he ordinarily would. Remember the lovely match Andy

Murray put on with Boris Johnson for charity.

Perfectly placed serve on the sideline. The bounce on the line

really threw Mull Muller off. We talk about positive self-talk.

Down in this game but not a moment's negativity. 5-3 and two set points

to Cilic. One is all he needs. Excellent set

of serving. In fact, a top all round set, 17 first serve points, one out

of 17. In fact he only lost two points on serve at all. Wonderful

stuff. Very much in control. Players at the

Aegon Championships hoping to peak for Wimbledon. The all England Lawn

Tennis Club must be sure everything is perfect for the opening day.

They've been hard at work all year. Everything looking pristine and

perfect. They control everything at the All England Club except the

weather. Hopefully we'll have two wonderful weeks. Tennis for

Wimbledon qualifying coming up next week live from Roehampton. That

starts on Monday. You can watch that on the red button or on the website.

Next week, we'll be down on the south coast, live coverage of the

Aegon International. Eight of the world's top ten in action there in

the women's game. The planting down there this year

which I love every year, Martin Faulkner is in charge of it, the

planting is sensational. It looks beautiful. I wish I knew the name of

all of these. Monty Don would know, but I don't! They look more pretty.

They varnished all the wood and they made sure there were no signs of

anything that would ruin the look. There was one bloke in charge of

vanishing all the bannisters and jutt side wood work and he was

cursing saying, why didn't they make it out of metal.

Second set. First set to Cilic. Three six.

Oh. A total mis-hit. Drops rite on the line.

More often than not, the longer the rally goes, the more it faves Cilic

because, of course, he's a quicker guy around the baseline. -- favours

Cilic. The greater the chance that he will outmanoeuvre.

Federer beat his opponent to make the final again.

Would you say that makes him the favourite to win at Wimbledon? I

don't think you can bet against Federer winning. Yes. I think if

he'd have lost early, then that adds a bit of doubt to it but now that

he's won four matches, you have to think, all right, he's back in gear.

Zverev is very good, keep an eye out for him. His younger brother too.

Zverev Number Ten in the world on the rankings which take results from

the last 12 months, but starting January 1 in the race, he's number

five. Ahead of both Djokovic And Muller so he's having an incredible

year. Muller wasn't sure whether to play

this ball or leave it to go over the baseline.

Leaned on the return well. Of course, the wrong footing ground

stroke always effective on this surface. It's so easy to change

directions. We almost saw something we have not

seen in the tournament which was a dumb Cilic break point down, 30-30

is pretty much as close as anybody gets. Yet to face a break point in

this tournament. He is locked in, he is going for the lines, he is on top

of the ball. UMPIRE: Fault. He is reacting quickly to everything.

Cilic has come ready to play. Quarterfinalist at the recent French

Open on the clay. That concludes his set of at least quarterfinals in all

of the Grand Slam Championships. Record be proud of. Another

milestone reached in 400 career wins this year.

The penultimate forehand from Cilic was really clever. He put a lot of

top-spin on it, gave himself time to recover his position.

He's got a look about him, there is some menace about his tennis.

Well served. The most underutilised serve in tennis. Left-hander coming

into the right here. That is long. If there is one reason

why Cilic has not won Wimbledon before, has not been more dominant

on grass it's that. He just doesn't put quite as many returns interplay

has the very best. He's making all sorts of noises,

grunting, very focused. That serve was maybe three inches from the

centreline and it have to be that good, or Cilic was on it.

That is the way you charge on a sitting volley, don't let it drop in

the least. I swear there was a court around

here with some seeds on it! The game continues, what a tough

little mini contest within a contest this is. Cilic refusing to open the

door on his own serve, the pressure is really on a server on the grass

court, inside the baseline with his left foot, simple rotation, Cilic's

game looks pristine at the moment. There is a little bit of rain

around. I don't know whether it is just in the hair floating about,

there seems to be a bit of murmuring in the crowd, people reaching for

jackets and suchlike. I think he quite liked that other

pigeon. That is a tremendous game. Superb.

The concentration was there and the serving was at the end as well.

Lovely half-volley in there. Halfway through the game, old-fashioned

skill. What is it like to break the Muller serve, to receive this serve?

It's fantastic out wide, down the middle on the teak. It is this

variation that you have to prepare yourself for, you can be dragged way

out wide or cover the one down the middle. -- down the middle on the T.

Let's demonstrate that now. This is on the left-hand side, taking it out

wide, this is a standard ball from Muller on the left-hand side. The

ball on the left-hand side, as it crosses the baseline, in other words

where you are receiving it, you don't want to give away space and

stop it before it gets too far away from you, you've got to cover the

one on the left with the slice and with exactly the same ball toss he

can go straight down the middle. I don't know what that distances

between the ball on the left and the one on the right, the wide and flat

one but it is a fair distance and requires anticipation. Rather like a

well taken penalty in football, nothing you can do if he's going to

serve well. In fact, those two serves were conservative and placed.

Muller would hope to get the serve up the middle much closer to the

centreline and that makes it obviously much tougher to return it

and one out wide again, if that is on the line it is unreturnable. When

you were playing with John McEnroe in the singles and doubles this was

a great left-handed serve, the greatest of all time. Did you tell

him, or request where he was going to serve? Did he tell you when you

were playing doubles? How did you direct fire? You mean when we played

together? Yes. Very rarely, only on a huge point would he say, OK, I'm

going here. Usually it would just be he is going to serve, I am going to

react, and vice versa. So you never requested that he serve into the

body or anything like that? Did he use that body serve? Yes, he had a

great body serve. Yes because he had six and a half foot tall you at the

next to clean up. Yes but it was more the other way around, to be

honest. His serve, he got into the net so quickly behind it and he

varied it well. He didn't really have a kick-serve but he would hit

the slice and body serve is really effectively. I know you played him

in singles a lot. Was that the best delivery you have played against?

How fast was Roscoe Tabac in the day? His serve was much quicker. He

was 135-140 tops. The greatness of his serve was in its placement. He

could put it on a dime. Just waiting for the wind to pick up the moisture

off the top of the service they're service. This is why the players are

not going back to the locker room which is just under the stairs, up

the external stairs and then the internal stairs. I don't think we

will be off for long. Just a little pulse of light rain getting onto the

court surface, which is right Dan Maguire grass is played on very

rarely. -- which is why grass. It doesn't make a lot of economic sense

to play on grass courts. Back in the old days I remember playing a match

in the national and meta- grass courts in Southampton. Southampton,

America? And it was a drizzle throughout the match. Much harder

rain than this. A two-hour match played throughout like that. It was

really slippery and you would just sliding around. There were no grass

court shoes with studs on in those days. It's when men were men. It's

interesting how the game has changed the more professional it has become.

The players have basically said, I'm not doing that, I am not playing in

those conditions anymore. Ireland a tournament pre-Wimbledon in Reading,

when Nastase played in pouring rain, it was on TV in those days. They

said we want to come said they must play on. And he said give me your

umbrella, play with one hand holding the umbrella. I think they got their

point across. If you don't have grass court shoes, you could always

have one of these guys dragging him brush along but quite rare. Put

socks over the shoes, that works. You need very large shop dark socks

to get over your shoes, but you never know. -- very large socks. He

has ordinary grass court shoes on, Marin Cilic. They are quite heavily

regulated, the studs on the bottom, these pimples. You cannot have them

wrapping around the edges and up the shoe because that damages the court

to match. There were two years when Bjorn Borg had those shoes and no

one else did. No! Yes, and he used to walk on court with normal tennis

shoes on and he would have the grass court shoes in his bag and when he

got out on court he would change his shoes. Really? That is gaining an

unfair advantage. The pimples on a table tennis bat. Yes. Said he

gained that advantage? They would work superbly on a clay-court.

Except some players prefer to slide and therefore it's sort of defeats

that purpose. Lars Graff is the supervisor this week, Dave Kimpton

on the right, in charge of the courts.

Get in touch, #BBC tennis. That's the way to get in contact with us. I

will get to those, I promise. When I am sent them I will definitely have

a look. No hard questions, though. Interesting to see the blank look on

Gilles Muller's face. Just that exhausted... Just spaced out look.

It was a great hold after seven or eight minutes on the service game.

When the rain comes down is the last time you want to lose your serve.

ANNOUNCER: There is slight moisture and rain in the air and we are going

to hold the players for a few more minutes until it is safe for them to

resume play. Thank you for your patience.

Of course, a five-ten minute delay is not much of a problem. But if the

players have to go off for half an hour or so, then it becomes a little

more problematic. Just approaching ten minutes since

the last point. Training has changed.

Such a lot in the last few years or so, players do an awful lot more

weightlifting and hammer stretching than they ever used to, particularly

hitting the weights though these days.

Dimitrov and Lopez next up for us on this court. Cilic is out there and

ready to play. With this breeze and even the sun is attempting to peer

through any surface water will evaporate quickly.

That is only the fifth point that Cilic has dropped on serve.

Including two double faults. On the other hand, Muller has lost 19 on

his serve. You would have thought that this would be a rout, wouldn't

you. All you're doing is looking at stats. The scoreline still a bit

tight. That is a much easier game on the

last one. Muller 3-2. Very pleased that rain delay wasn't

too long. We still have play here at the Queen's Club. But there are

tournaments happening elsewhere, including the ladies, the WTA event

up in Edgbaston. Two results to bring you from there. Kvitova is

continuing her impressive form. Safarova was forced to retire

because of a leg injury. Everyone saying Kvitova looked very, very

strong from the first set of that match. And Muguruza has gone out,

beaten lie Barty. Barty was the Wimbledon junior champion in 2011.

She walked away from the game in 2014, went to play cricket for

Brisbane in the Big Bash league and returned to tennis last year and is

now racing up the rankings. A big scalp at the Aegon classic this

week. Eastbourne next week. Live coverage there from Monday. Back we

go to the first semi-final. Barty tremendous athlete. Great hand-eye

coordination. Always loves the grass court. So good for her.

Total mis-hit from Cilic. Managed to propel the ball forwards. Look at

this one. It's a virtuoso point from Muller right up until the last

passing shot which sailed low. This remarkable run continues on

first serve. 23 points played and 23 won.

Loss of concentration, nothing more here. Tried to make a perfect drop

volley when actually anything inside the surface line probably would have

done. An hour and eight minutes to lose a point.

We were talking about great service a moment ago. We are watching two

fine serves here. One viewer says, how fast did Borg serve. He played

long before radar guns were popular. I would have thought his serve was

somewhere 125-130. But he had a great first serve, he could place it

on a dime, much like McEnroe's. He won a lot of points behind his free

serve. That was the difference, you know. One year. In that year, in

1976, he said something just fell into place and in Paris he always

just rolled it in. And suddenly he came to Wimbledon and he had a huge

first serve. Once again from the end that Muller

is serving now there's pressure on his serve. Served break points the

last time he was down there. Well played. The ball hit the

baseline and stopped dead. Cilic's forehand on the play. No arguing

with that one. Just right on it, Muller doesn't hit

the serve in the corner he is in trouble. Just long. UMPIRE: Mr Cilic

is challenging the call on the left side baseline. The ball was called

out. Five break points in the second set, Cilic is trying to put this to

bed and get to the final. Advantage Muller, Mr Cilic has two

challenges remaining. That is a difficult return, taking

the sliding serve in your body, to try and push it back down the line.

Another tough hold from Gilles Muller who is hanging in to save

this second set. 4-3 up. STUDIO: We will be right back with

the semifinal on the Centre Court at the egg on Championships, still the

second semifinal players waiting in the clubhouse, Grigor Dimitrov,

champion here in 2014, up against the man he beat in that final,

Feliciano Lopez. La Paz had a match point when they played in 2014 so

that could be close. -- La Paz. Wait on this court, Jamie Murray and his

partner Bruno Soares who won the Australian Open doubles title last

year in action and we will bring you that, if we can bring, exquisite

into the coverage on BBC One because of the red -- rain, it will be on

the red button. Loss of tennis still to come.

COMMENTATOR: Absolutely, we had some rain earlier ten minutes into the

match, a couple of minutes delay, or a few minutes delay, before they got

under way, so a couple of rain delays. Harry Long says I wish there

had been some rain when I was at Queen's on Sunday, still nursing the

sunburn. Harry, silly, should have put something on. Thomas Scullion,

maybe miserable this afternoon, every other sport continues in the

rain, so continue. -- Harry Colleen -- Thomas Colin.

11 o'clock, red button on Monday for Wimbledon qualifying, men's and

women's, for the first time televised. Join us next week. Jon

Voight and Mary Pierce join the force and commentary down there. --

John Lloyd. It's been a long time since Mary

Pierce saw a qualifying event. Grand Slam champion.

That was a half-hearted attempt at tapas. -- at Web Pass -- at Dave

half-hearted attempt at a pass. Still, doing a wonderful job of

taking Muller's time away from him, standing on the baseline to return

and following any return into the net.

The frustration will build for Cilic. He's had so many

opportunities in this set. Muller has found his way through his

service games to survive. He has broken once but had eight

opportunities to break, eight break points throughout the match, Cilic.

He is just beginning to shake his head a little. This is the way

scoring is in tennis. You can have the upper hand, you can be playing

the better tennis but you can be ambushed. It looks like we might be

heading for a tie-break. A quick result from Ilkley and the

challenge of being played up there. Jade Clarke from Derby who had a

great week winning his first two matches in Challenger play has lost

in the quarterfinals but he is one to watch, J Clarke. Such a good

opportunity this time of the year to play in front of home crowds. Take

some opportunities to get some computer points. Nothing like

playing at home. The US Open was your home tournament, wasn't it? It

was, yes. Not 1 million miles away from here, where you? Still not. The

US Open never really felt like a home tournament, though. Actually

there was another one in Orange that was just around the corner from my

house and that was fun. The clay-court season finished in a

flourish for Rafa Nadal for supper can't wait to see him play. I hope

his knees hold up for the whole thing. How can you win ten French

opens? One of the great sporting achievements, la decima, as they

called it. He didn't lose a set in winning the French Open, not even

sure he got taken past four games in a set. Didn't play Wimbledon last

year and lost to Dustin Brown the year before. Nadal back at Wimbledon

fit and well. Muller, I am sure, just feels it's

an achievement to put the return back into play and get in a rally

but he needs to do even more than that. He needs to take a few more

risks to see if he can force Cilic to defend.

That time Muller flat-out guessed that the serve would go out wide and

guessed wrong, as it happened. This is the end that Muller has

struggled with his serve. Did you see where Cilic was to

receive that? Virtually in the front row.

Nice job of putting pace on the return. Forcing Muller to try and

fend off an awkward bounce. That is the wide serve on the

sideline. And it's strictly unplayable.

So the least he'll get from this set is a tie-breaker.

We have another left-right contest coming up. Lopez, three times

quarter-finalist at Wimbledon against grippingor Dimitrov. That

will be a highlight -- Grigor Dimitrov.

We have just been talking about Nadal, talking about great

left-handers, his last four Wimbledons, his losses have come to

Kyrgios, Darcey and Brown included in those four. It's really odd that

he should have such deep dips considering he's won the tournament

twice, right. But he did go through a patch there when his confidence

was pretty fragile. That no longer appears to be the case.

A helicopter overhead. Cilic taking us into a tie-break in the second

set. That's a rare lead in a Cilic game.

Something for Muller to work with. Wow, what a surprise! Well taken,

Muller. There's the opportunity presenting itself and he was ready.

That's the first time that Marin Cilic has lost his serve during the

course of this tournament. Well done Muller. In some ways against play.

We are going to distance here. Where did that come from, Cilic losing his

serve. It's game on here. Plenty of tennis still to come today and over

the next few weeks as we build up to the finals of Wimbledon. But there's

plenty of sport on the BBC right the way through the summer as well.

That all looks good. Wonderful. Some of the numbers then from this

semi-final. Muller putting together an

inspirational game. Back in the old days if it wasn't

Borg, you would say, I can't lose to this guy. Why can't people play that

is the of tennis now? Well, the players return serve so much better

now and hit passing shots. So much more powerfully and accurately. And

conversely, because the players never serve and volley they're not

very good at it any more. Good response Marin Cilic.

He played David Nalbandian. He was disqualified.

Oh, terrific defending from Muller. We have not seen this sort of

all-court play from him ever. A career high at the age of 34, it's

pretty unusual. The trend continues. Three have gone

begging here in the third. That 's the first time all week we

have seen Cilic shout out in anger. Often exhorted himself to come on

after he's hit a good shot. That is a line ball. Having lost his

serve and having had 40-0 in this game, this ricin tension is more

evident than it has been, as Peter has been saying. Button well played,

she'll Mola. Tremendous defence. This successful brand may continue,

winning last week in Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands on a grass court.

, he had his sons there with him. He is the best player ever from

Luxembourg, that's for sure. Finished last year at number 34, a

career high, and immediately won in Sydney and now that victory in

Holland, great successful Muller, playing with confidence. How old are

his sons? Seven and five. He is on a roll now. If Cilic isn't

careful this match could get away from him. Who would have thought

that an hour ago. ? Talk about a guy that's been around,

she'll Mola has been injured a bit, but he was a finalist in Washington

in 2004, 13 years ago. It took him a long time to get his first

tournament victory this year in Sydney. He defeated Agassi that week

and lost to Hewitt. Absolutely a different generation. Mr Cilic is

challenging the call on the service line, the ball was called in.

The call was in on the serve. 15-0. The call stands. 15-0. Mr Cilic has

two challenges remaining. Let's Seve that well timed return

gets Cilic going once again. -- see if that well timed return.

There is nothing more than moralising than playing against a

guy who is serving bombs at you, placing them in the corners, you

have a chance to put the Paul -- ball back into play. Cilic tasting a

bit of his own medicine. What a strange old start to the week

we had here, with Andy Murray going out early against Jordan Thompson.

Jordan Thompson got into the draw having lost in qualifying because

somebody pulled out so he was the highest ranked guy in the qualifying

at the time who hadn't got in so in he goes, beats Andy Murray, Jordan

Thompson plays a good match against Sam Querrey but loses, Sam Querrey

loses to Muller, this is the Murray section, the top half of the draw.

Also going out, Nick Kyrgios hurt his hip, I saw him here with Jack

Sock, the American number one. Hopefully Nick Kyrgios will be fine.

Who else went out? The wildcard Australian Kokkinakis but to

Medvedev and Ben Dimitrov. Stan Wawrinka, that is more

understandable, the loss to Feliciano Lopez in round one -- and

then Dimitrov. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga lost as well do she'll Mola. -- lost

to Gilles Muller. Pretty good quarterfinal line-up now. They're

all guys playing well on grass courts. Cilic and Muller were both

in last week's finals. Muller women in Holland as you noted, Cilic

losing in the finals in Stuttgart. He will change his racket for the

new tennis balls. It is getting overcast at Queen's Club. A couple

of rain delays but these yellow balls of bright. This is a darker

day than we have enjoyed this week. Should be OK from here. The wind

whipping in from the West which is to the left as we looked down the

court behind Muller. Muller's serve will be even more venomous from this

end. Cilic caught out sprinting to the

open court. Didn't even have to put much pace on that at all.

It is a quiet -ish bar area for the members at Queen's today. Two more

matches to come after with Lopez playing Dimitrov with Dimmock and

Jamie Murray and his Brazilian partner Bruno Soares our inaction

against Marin Cilic who is going to be having a very long day and Marcin

Matkowski, who is a doubles specialist. He's from Poland.

As well as Olympic day which Sue Barker told us about because Andy

Murray tweeted a picture of himself with his medals and teddy bears and

bits and bobs if you saw that. What is Olympic day? I don't know but if

you've won lots of Olympic medals then you can wear them all. They

cannot do it any other day? No and it is armed services day and it is

centring around Liverpool. I spoke to Scotty Sears, Andy Murray's

brother-in-law, raising money for the Gurkhas. He is in the Gurkhas

and I want to wish him well because he is heading to the South Pole

unassisted, unaided, alone in November. I spoke to him on the

radio this morning. Silly boy. But he is raising money for a fantastic

course. Wow. Brave, isn't it? Yes. It is 3-2 to Muller, no breaks in

this third and deciding set. So Cilic hoping to bring a little

energy to the proceedings, up on the baseline, drills that background,

can he get a few more returns into play?

Such a different concentration that is required from the surface they

have been playing on recently, clay - staccato, half chances, quick

pace. Absolutely, a couple of games without getting any chance at all,

and you still have to be ready. That is the sort of intensity that

we have seen from Cilic throughout the week.

He has not been able to show it too often today, such as being the

Muller service dominance. World number seven trying to press

home this advantage. Just getting in Muller's face a little bit.

Oh! The entire Croatian player box support close to him just about

managed to find their way to their feed and then sunk back down again.

Yeah, he did well to track the ball down, did not miss it by much, just

a couple of inches. A mean looking player box! Break

point. And this time he gains the break!

And he's doing it as much by willpower as anything else, really

broadcasting the message that he is ready to break. Yeah, and after

winning the very first point of that game, Cilic really pumped himself

up, and you know that that got into Muller's head just a little bit. The

body language can play a big role in a match like this. And taken out

wide and chasing down these swinging left-handed serves, he has been very

effective in making a play, you mentioned it earlier, getting pace

on it. No point chipping it back, you will lose, and you have to

commit. I have a feeling he was cheating his way in, knowing that

Muller would go to his favoured serve on such a big point. Here

certainly going to be a threat, no matter what happens here at Queen's

Club this week, two games away from going through to the final. He has

been a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon three years in a row, last year two

sets up on Federer before losing in five.

The year before that, he lost to Djokovic, had a massive match with

John Isner, like everybody else! The year before that, a quarterfinal

loss in five sets to Novak Djokovic, so some pedigree on grass. 4-3.

Have done the hard bit, making an effective return of serve.

Exactly right. Didn't miss it by much - but same result.

It is as though the error forced into lose the concentration, a total

mis-hit. Muller just hitting his head with

his racket, that 0-30 point, a painful forehand miss, fleeting

chances. Whatever happens in this surface

game, Cilic will serve for a place in the final.

I love the way Cilic ghosts win after hitting an aggressive ground

strokes. Any different in a thought process

when you're serving a big game like this, or are you an automatic pilot

when you've won this amount of matches? The big prize, does that

make you a bit more nervous or do you follow the process? Well, both.

But, yeah, sure he will be a little bit aware of what he does on this

first point, get your first serve in on the first point, perhaps. Right

from the word go in this tournament, the 2012 champion has been so sharp.

The footwork, moving on, knocking the ball off when it's there to be

knocked off, and choosing the right shot and serving it magnificently.

First-round victory over John is and Stephane Kozlov, the qualifier from

the United States -- John Isner. He beat Donald Young 6-4, 7-5. Now a

chance for a final place. It really has been just the one game where

Cilic just lost his Mojo, momentarily.

Well, nice to see that the forehand error at 0-30 in the last Cilic

service game hasn't put him off. Really going after that return.

Oh, what a magnificent way to close it out! The second serve, that wide,

103 mph. The final will feature Marin Cilic, a magnificent grass

court player and with a magnificent attitude this week, popular with the

crowd, of course. Finally, a smile! More than the competitive grimace

which he's been wearing. A wonderful performance.

Really, a super week for Marin Cilic. Former champion at Grand Slam

level, and such a consistent performer on the grass courts.

Gilles Muller, excellent week for him as well. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the

number five seed, found him too hot to handle. And Sam Querrey lost to

him 6-4, 7-6. Sam Querrey will make his way of like the court. A big

contribution from the 34-year-old. -- of the court. He has had a career

high up the moment, and his tennis reflected that, certainly, such is

the confident in his game. But in the final analysis, just the one

break of serve in the third set was enough for Cilic to go through. And

then there were three. Cilic and the semifinalists coming up. They are

the only three remaining. Feliciano Lopez has been playing some inspired

tennis himself, against Grigor Dimitrov, always a great

entertainer. Don't go anywhere, stay tuned for that. And later on, don't

forget that here on BBC One or the red button and you can see Jamie

Murray in action with Bruno Soares against this man, Marin Cilic, and

Marcin Matkowski. So he will be back after the second semifinal. Whether

he wants to be playing quite that much tennis today before a final,

I'm not so sure. But I'm sure he will take to the court, so have a

look at Jamie Murray later on, it's worth watching him playing doubles.

Competing like I've hardly ever seen him compete, with such focus.

Bjorkman deserves much credit for that. His coach. He seems to have

made a big difference to his mental attitude.

And there is no reaction. From the box. So there is the Wii action.

Marin Cilic is talking to Katherine. Marin, many, many congratulations. A

third Aegon Championships final, it is clear that means a lot to use.

Definitely. It is amazing to get the final, considering that today's

match was extremely high-level, I was playing good throughout all the

match. Gilles was just pushing me to the limits. It wasn't easy to keep

calm after all of the break points I had in the second set and then

losing it, and the beginning of the tour I had 0-40. But eventually I

got the break. And I really played a great match. Gilles managed to do

something today which no other man has done this week, which is create

a break point on your server. He only did it in one game. Do you feel

like Superman when you step up to serve?! No, I don't! But this week I

was feeling really good on my serve. Especially on the shots afterwards,

I was playing really well. Against Gilles Muller today, I was mixing it

up. I was just playing really well, really spot. And some critical

points. -- really smart. Usually I would ask you what you will do to

the powerful the final. But you have a doubles semifinal coming up later

on today. Only one man has ever done the singles and doubles double, that

was Pete Sampras in 1995. How much would you like to be the second?

That would mean a lot, for sure. I don't have a title in doubles in my

career, so that would be nice, absolutely. But we are playing later

probably the best team, one the best teams in the world, against Suarez

and Jamie Murray. It will be an interesting match. I'm going to

enjoy that, and hope that we will go through. We will see you out here

later, best of luck. Thank you. He has got a very busy day here at the

Aegon Championships. Another superb performance and another superb

serving performance from Marin Cilic. He really does look a

complete player with all of the work he has done alongside Jonas

Bjorkman. Certainly a man in form. Peter and John are with me. John, we

have been watching that, she is so hard to beat, isn't he? He has

served so well, I like the way he backs up his serve. He is very

aggressive, standing close inside the baseline, he is not afraid to

Bobby, his return of serve is excellent. I like his attitude, too

-- he is not afraid to volley. He is this pumping every time he got a

break point. It shows how much the appointment means, as well as

obviously Wimbledon coming up. He is in form and he wants to win this

again and he is desperate to do so. With so many of the big names going

out, this is a huge opportunity to get a lot of ranking points and

improve your world ranking. No question about it. A win at a 500

level tournament, you know, that's a good week. But even more

importantly, you know, I think Marin will be thinking, the way that he's

playing right now, that his chances really do skyrocket for Wimbledon in

a couple of weeks' time. He, I think, is playing as well as he's

ever played. And of course he's a former US Open champion. You know,

nobody's going to want to play him, nobody's going to want to see him in

that quarter in a couple of weeks' time. We just picked out a couple of

points. It was in that game when he actually managed to break Gilles

Muller's serve. Look at this point, she just knew that this was his

chance and he was going to take it. Magnificent tennis he played. He

really did. How close he is, getting inside that baseline. I don't think

he would have done that a few years back, he would have waited and

hesitated. There's no hesitation. That return of serve is pretty

awesome. That serve he has whether he does it on the first serve all

the second, it is such a difficult serve because it goes up so high.

That's the thing, unless you are really tall, you're going to be

playing something well over your shoulders. If you are one-handed,

you have got no chance on it. He varies it, he does the same ball

toss when he arches his back, you think it is going to be a kick out

wide and then he smashes it down the middle, a very good disguise. Such a

big weapon. We saw Rafa Nadal at the Clay, he was making people play

shots so high with the spin, it is difficult to get any power and

strength and control when you are playing above your shoulder. He is

serving very confidently. The thing that I like about Cilic, much more

so now than in previous years, he is hitting his forehand really

confidently. And he's hitting it hard. He is dominant with it. So he

puts his first serve into play, and if you don't time the return

perfectly, then he's dumping you with a forehand. And, you know, it's

a rough combination -- he is something you. Cilic is through to

tomorrow's final. The second semifinal will be in court in a

moment. Grigor Dimitrov against Feliciano Lopez. Andy Murray went

out in the opening round. He is playing two exhibition matches next

week. This week no doubt he has been practising down at Wimbledon, it is

almost like a home club for him. A few weeks ago I went down to visit

him, and I met him in the members lounge. Hello! How are you? How's

things? All right, yeah, it's nice being around this club. The waiting

is over! Finals day, how nerve-racking is

this walk? 24 hours before, you know, you're OK, and then as it gets

to like an hour before, it gets worse. And as you start to make the

walk, you think, you know, can I actually play tennis? I'm terrible!

Get this over with! As soon as you are on the court, I've done that my

whole life, it's OK once I'm out there, it's more the getting onto

the court that the hard bit. Is it the longest walk of the Grand Slam?

The US Open is very close, the French Open, but by far the longest

walk. Pugh Weigl heroes when you were growing up? We would always

support the British -- who will work your heroes. We watched Tim Henman

four years at Wimbledon. I loved watching Andre Agassi as well, just

because he was a bit different. Obviously a big personality. You

know, a great shot maker. He didn't play the same way as a lot of other

players did. At that time he wasn't playing serve and volley tennis. He

was a bit different. Are you a regular snooker player here? I was

until I lost in the semifinals at the club championships. Me and my

coach, Jamie Delgado, put the snooker a way after that and I

haven't played since. Whose fault was it? To be honest, we were a bit

unlucky, it was one frame all, but we were terrible! We played for

about four hours for three frames. We needed to pot on the last hole,

to either pot the blue, the pink or the black. Jamie Potter and the blue

to win the game but also went in off the pot. And then we lost. And,

yeah, that's been it, we gave up. This is such a magical place. Do you

have a little glance off to the right as you come down? Yes, it's a

shame we don't get to keep that one! That amazing trophy, is literally

never leaves their eggs at an finals day. We get a replica, probably

about a third of the size of that one -- it never leaves their an

finals they. They won't let me touch it! As soon as you take a photo with

it, they snatch it back of you and put it back in its box and off it

goes. We will hear more from Andy in the

documentary on Sunday just before Wimbledon gets under way. Jamie

Delgado's fold eczema I was shocked he didn't say that, because he told

the story, yes, it was Jamie's fault! As far as Wimbledon is

concerned, he would be there practising now - what he did here on

Tuesday or forgotten. Probably, it might be fuel on the fire, I am

terrible! But he uses that to drive him, and you are right, he will be

down at Wimbledon practising all this week and next, and you would

have to think that he will settle in to a pretty good frame of mind by

the time the tournament rolls around. I think it will be key, how

the draw pans out, he will be the first match on the first day, and we

have talked about so many of these dangerous floaters, he will be

keeping a keen eye on the draw. Best of five sets, to beat Andy Murray on

any surface, grass almost impossible, it would take an immense

performance for someone to knock him out of the first or second round in

best of five said in his own home. I cannot see it happening, but there

are some very dangerous floaters around. The depth in the men's game

is soaked up now. We can have a look at the betting odds as far as it

goes. He is second favourite, no doubt who is the favourite, Roger

Federer, after the six months he has had since coming back. Marin Cilic

was not in the top ten a few days ago, but moving up a bit. Rafael

Nadal, who would you put as your overall favourite, Federer? Well, I

am actually still sticking with Andy, but barely. I like the first

two, but I also like Cilic and Dimitrov at 25-1. Rafa is the

interesting one, won the French, playing awesome tennis, he is slow

to get used to grass, but he could be brutal again, and Novak Djokovic,

who knows with him? He has gone down in his form, but he is the

unpredictable one of the four. It is the widest open Wimbledon in

decades, really. There are ten people you could make an argument

for. But as you say, the way that Roger Federer has played over the

last year, taking six months after macro, first tournament back, wins

the Australian. And the manner in which he won! He didn't creep over

the line, he played a flawless tennis. Then Indian Wells, Miami,

takes three or four months off, fine, this is a good thing for me!

And now in the final in Halle, so it clearly has not affected him at all.

And other player they will not want to meet two early on, Feliciano

Lopez has been an awesome form, he is out on court right now, a repeat

of the 2014 final, as he takes on Grigor Dimitrov. And there is

Dimitrov, such a class player, isn't he, John? He is, and he had to dig

deep in his last round, an interesting match against Medvedev,

he was winning so easily, it looked like his opponent was going to

default. He took his foot off the pedal for a second, he lost the

second and was down a break and had to come up with a couple of amazing

shots to get back up in the match. But he will take from that that you

cannot take any match easy, but also the strength of character to come

back when he looked like he was about to lose the match. And when

you say play a couple of great shots, he really upped his game,

which is what you're looking for. Let's hear what Grigor had to say

after the match when he spoke to Catherine.

When you last won here in 2014, you went on to have your best ever

Wimbledon. How much do you want to win here? It is a very special

tournament for me, and I kind of feel very relaxed, at the same time

I am trying to put that pressure on myself, but that is the beauty of

tennis. When you win once, you want to do it again, every tournament

that you have done well, you kind of want to repeat that. All athletes,

in general, we are so superstitious, I am doing the same things I did in

2014. So far, I think everything is going well, I am looking match after

match, I have very solid opponents in the next two rounds potentially,

so I need to stay focused, stay grounded, look at what is ahead of

me. The superstitions are certainly working, he has played some great

tennis, and when he is on, Peter, he is so beautiful to watch, and if he

can build on that confidence, he is capable of going through any player.

He is beautiful to watch all of the time, such a graceful player, better

on this surface, and he defends supremely well. It is interesting,

though, the one semifinal is too has not been dominant to get to this

point. The other three all got here without dropping serve at all. At

that has almost been the good news for Dimitrov, because he has had to

fight, and he has shown that he is able to come through under pressure.

He is up against Feliciano Lopez, it will be interesting to see how much

he has got in his legs as well, because that is going to be

important. They have met so many times before, here, and the last

meeting was in Cincinnati, and that was a long one, we have been

predicting this could be a long match, it will be interesting to see

how Lopez comes back from his match. Although Grigor played three sets,

Lopez had a much more testing match against Berdych. Much more, and he

has had a tough couple of weeks, he is amazingly fit, but grass takes it

out of you, a lot of bending and stretching wide fourballs, very

tough matches. He has had a lot of tough matches in the last ten or 12

days, and I have got to favour Dimitrov, but this man, on is

called, is so good. So affective, Peter, his serve. One of the great

serves in the game, and if he can fire it down consistently well, he

will hold serve most of the time. The one thing that Dimitrov brings

to the game is the ability to put returns into play, so he will force

Lopez to play more backcourt points, and maybe over time that might wear

him down a little bit, we will have to wait and see. Interesting

watching the practice court, Balbirnie working with Dimitrov,

trying to be really aggressive, he wants him to be attacking, take the

match away from Lopez today. Well, yeah, and I think when they get into

a backcourt rally, if Dimitrov can work is way into the net, he forces

Lopez to hit passing shots puff the backhand, which he is not that keen

on doing. Lopez can slice the backhand until the cows come home,

but if you force him to hit passing shots, topspin shots, he is less

comfortable, so get in the net, put pressure on, falls into... Dominate

from your side of the court, Lopez has such incredible feel with the

racket, he can do all sorts of spins and slices, and if you let him take

charge, you will be doing a lot of running. Absolutely, and Grigor is

such a marvellous defender, sometimes he gets lulled into that,

he likes chasing balls down and running for lost causes. And a lot

of time he pulls it off, but I don't think that is the sort of game that

he can play to beat the very best. No, but good to see him close back

to his best. He might not be where he was in 2014, when he won here,

Dimitrov we are talking about, went through to the semifinal of

Wimbledon - not quite at that form but not far away. Not yet, and that

is not necessarily the bad news, because of course Marin Cilic, I

think, has peaked, he is playing about as well as he can play, and

can he maintain that form for another three weeks? That remains to

be seen. Whereas Dimitrov is growing, slowly and steadily full

stop you think, OK, if you can maintain that growth through the

first week in Wimbledon, then he is a real danger. Do you feel this is

possibly one match too far for Lopez today? Well, possibly, it depends.

If his shoulder is still all right and he can still bang down some

first serves, then why not? You can get through two sets. If it is a

long drawn-out affair and he has to play a lot from the backcourt, maybe

so. OK, Peter, thank you. John has made his way to the commentary box

to join Andrew Castle. Sue, thank you very much, playing

for the privilege to meet Marin Cilic in the final, it was 2014 when

Dimitrov won. What am I talking about? This is the repeat of the

2014 final! Dimitrov to serve. He was 0-30 down against Medvedev in

yesterday's quarterfinal in his first service game before settling.

Oh, that is a perfect serve. UMPIRE: Mr Lopez is challenging the

call on the centre service line. Lopez just hoping that the

centreline might have spread a little bit, the dust flying

everywhere, but no joy for him. Amazing how far he gets round and

not forehand - I thought when Lopez hit that backhand slice that

Dimitrov would have to hit a backhand, but he even got round that

one, so low, almost at the line, he got rounded and with the forehand,

such a big shot. Oh, well, that is painting the lines, from 15-40 down,

he has served his way out of trouble straightaway, that will be a relief

for the coaching box, the first game of this second semifinal concluded.

There is a fellow called George in Hawk-Eye, and he has been putting

this together, this is the 2014 final against Lopez, Dimitrov

against Lopez. These are crucial points, the first big hit after the

serve, look at the red, that is the forehand, 81% after the returns.

Look at the wits, on both sides. And where does he hit it? Right into the

corners. That's what Dimitrov can do, such as

the footwork we were just talking about.

91 mph forehand! I don't remember any of those with a wooden racket! I

don't from the serve. Let alone a ground stroke. Cars didn't even use

to go that fast! Oh, what a lovely rally that was!

Dimitrov knows going into that backhand side he hasn't got too much

to worry about in terms of being threatened on the backhand. He knows

he is not going to get easy point of Maximo has sliced backhand, but he

can go there all day long if he wants to. He has to hit it pretty

deep though, otherwise Lopez can chip in on that shot. Lopez I think

has one of the best approach shot on grass in the game, he slices it, the

depth that he has. Oh, what a game! Well, I like what

I'm seeing so far from both players. Just in case there's any doubt as to

what you get on the Lopez backhand side. Uncle George and his Hawk-Eye

and their have put this together, 92% of the time, the backhands are

slicing. He might come across it on a passing shot.

He's actually sort of a bit of an old-time player in that respect,

there's not many players on the Tour, if any, that would hit this

life that much and without coming over the ball in today's game, I

can't think of anybody else even close to that many sliced backhand.

Federer did go through a phase of slicing a lot. Not now, though. No.

I remember Matt philander playing against Lendl in the Open, he played

the fifth set and he only hit one-handed slices. He didn't come of

it backhand. He knew that Lendl didn't want to play against the

slice. Fabulous set of tennis that was.

Oh! That's why he doesn't come over it! It's a rotten thing... Through

that one out, we won't see another one again for the rest of the day

after that effort! Just a slight lack of poor use there

for a second, and that will be the last time we see that as well --

lack of -- poise. There's another one! The coach is probably looking

at him now saying, please, what are you doing?! There is the 8% rule.

That was so good the way that he knifed that one across. He got

ambitious, she just changes his grip a bit, coming over the ball. There's

no height on that one. Leaning back a little bit as well. He looks down

the racket. I think everyone will come back in.

I think they've all gone. The first semifinal, seeing Marin Cilic here

to the final here at Queen's Cup. -- Queen's Club.

The world's first multisports club, this. Football, rugby and athletics

all played here to international and world level. They played England

football matches here. Then that moved to Wembley. Rugby moved to

Twickenham, and athletics moved to White city. But it all started here.